


Principles of Chemistry

by freckleder



Series: Theories of Chemical Bonding [1]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alcohol, Alternate Universe - College/University, Chemistry AU, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Slow Burn, someone gets drunk once
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-08
Updated: 2015-11-21
Packaged: 2018-03-21 21:50:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 32,419
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3705697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckleder/pseuds/freckleder
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Kenma ends up being sorted into the wrong group and has to endure his new, exhausting lab partner for the next month.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Seems Like Yesterday

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Deutsch available: [Grundlagen der Chemie](https://archiveofourown.org/works/7781608) by [sommersprossig (freckleder)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/freckleder/pseuds/sommersprossig)



_"Second law of thermodynamics: Every process occurring in nature proceeds in the sense in which the sum of the entropies of all bodies taking part in the process is increased."_

 

Universities have always had that little thing were they completely disregarded the idea that students needed sleep or free time.

Kenma rubbed his eyes and tried to find his friends in the crowd of sullen and sleep deprived chemistry students that had the misfortune of having a preparatory class one week before the semester even started. He didn’t have a hard time spotting them. Lev, who is probably the tallest person Kenma had ever met, always stood out. After a few good mornings to fellow students and a bit of elbow shoving he managed to create a path through to them.

“Mornin’” he mumbled, his voice still a bit rough.

“Morning!” Lev greeted him. “Wow, the motivational aura around you is so strong, I can almost feel it in the air.”

Kenma rolled his eyes. It was too early to come up with a good comeback.

“Good morning. Have you already decided which group you’d like to be in?” Yamaguchi asked, his hands clutched around a cup of coffee.

They were here for the allocation of places for a lab. The longest lab for this semester, to be precise, since it was lasting for four weeks.

“I think the second group would be the best option. The first is already starting next week and I don’t want to spend the first month of uni at this lab”, Kenma said.

Yamaguchi nodded. “I thought so too. So let’s all choose the second one?”

“Yeah, sounds good”, Lev agreed.

The professor finally opened the door to the lecture hall and the students swarmed inside. There were surprisingly much more people than they had expected but they managed to get seats at the back of the room. After a few minutes the turmoil and chatting quieted down and the professor started the introduction speech.

It was around that moment that Kenma started to feel his heart rate go up. He always dreaded these preparatory classes. They went through the list of people that were accepted into the lab and they had to call out and state which group they’d like to be in. In these times of modern technology you would imagine that they’ve come up with a more efficient system by now but to Kenma’s misfortune that was not the case.  He couldn’t get used to this, no matter what. Every time he was worried that he might miss his name or say the wrong group number.

As soon as they started reading out the first names the tension washed right over him. This was more nerve-racking than writing an exam. It was the anticipation that gnawed on his nerves.

Finally the professor read his name. “Kozume Kenma.”

“Yes!” he shouted, louder than necessary. “Number two, please!”

The professor typed something on his laptop and moved on to the next name. Kenma tried to wipe his hands on his trousers without being too obvious.

 

“Yes! We all got in!” Lev cheered after the class was over. “Not that you needed to worry, Kenma.”

He sighed. “As if any of you needed to worry either, you were right beneath me on the list.”

The rankings were based on how many exams you had already passed. Kenma was one of the few people that were granted a scholarship which you could only apply for if you had a certain GPA and amount of passed exams. His friends never passed up a chance to tease him about it but they didn’t mean anything they said seriously.

 They met up with a few other people and went to get some food. Kenma was pretty pleased with the start of this semester, everything was planned out and his courses didn’t overlap. They sat there for a while and talked about what they had done during the semester break.

Only when Kenma checked his emails the next day his whole plan crumbled right in front of his eyes. He just stared at that one dreadful sentence.

“You have been enrolled for ‘Group 1’, please check the attachments for further information.”

He wrote an email to the professor in charge but of course he couldn’t switch courses anymore. Once all arrangements are made that was usually not possible. His last chance was asking another student if they would be willing to switch with him. Kenma made a facebook post in their chemistry group, probably the first time he had ever written something in there, but nobody wanted to change. Of course not, everyone had already planned their labs and exams out so nobody would want to switch now.

Kenma had once heard a story of someone accidently being put in the wrong group because a professor made a typo but he would have never thought that he’d share that fate with said student. Another reason why the system they currently had was outdated. Now he had four days to prepare for a whole months worth of lab. Fantastic.

 

On Monday morning, while everyone else was sound asleep in their beds, Kenma was given an introduction to lab safety that he only half-heartedly listened to. He used that chance to have a look around but he barely knew any of the students. Obviously most people had chosen the second group since you had more time to prepare but there was nothing to be done about this now. He had to make it work somehow.

“Please don’t forget to sign the sheet that states that you were present and have taken note of the security instructions. I assume you’ve all come prepared and know what you’ll be working on. You will be working in groups of two according to your last name. We have distributed your nameplates according to these groups to the benches.”

Kenma was suddenly struck with the urge to just turn around and leave. They had to work in pairs. He would rather work with a grizzly bear than with another student especially if he didn’t know that person.

Even so this lab had to be done and the sooner the better. Kenma reluctantly went on the search for his nameplate. The bench was empty when he got there, so he started to unpack his things. Right when he got his documents out someone put a bag next to his.

It was a tall student, probably older than Kenma. He held out his hand and introduced himself. “Hi, I’m Kuroo Tetsurou.”

“My name’s Kozume Kenma. Nice to meet you.” He took the hand and it felt like he was sealing a contract for one month of exhaustion and irritation.

“Let’s work well together”, Kuroo added and started to unpack his things as well.

His hair was a mess. That was the first thing that caught Kenma’s eye. Had he never been introduced to the invention called hairbrush.

“So you’re the guy with the scholarship?”

“Whaw?” Kenma was just in the process of tying his hair in a ponytail and had a hair tie in between his teeth.

“I asked if you’re the guy with the scholarship.” Kuroo repeated.

“Yes, have we talked before?” This smalltalk while they got ready was already starting to bother him, what did he care? He wanted to get this lab done quickly, not find his soulmate.

Kuroo put his lab glasses on while he spoke. “I’ve seen you around campus sometimes. But I’ve only heard about it from some other guys, I’m two semesters ahead of you actually.”

“Oh really? I never noticed you before. Uhm, sorry I didn’t mean it that way...I just never saw you at a lecture...” Kenma wanted to bang his head against a wall. Insulting your lab partner on the first day: check. Maybe he should just stop talking.

Kuroo stared at him intently. “Don’t worry, it’s fine.”

“Why are you taking this lab only now?” Kenma averted his gaze and turned his full attention to his backpack. He couldn’t find his pair of lab glasses.

“It overlapped with another one last semester and I chose the other lab first. Trouble finding your glasses?”

Kenma started to empty the content of his backpack but his glasses seemed nowhere to be found.

“Tststs, so unprepared for the first day, Mr. Scholarship. Guess you have to use one that they provide here.” Kuroo opened the drawers and handed him an ancient pair of lab glasses with a thick black frame.

Kenma snatched them out of his hand, not oblivious to Kuroo’s muffled grin, and tried them on. They were so large they kept slipping of his face and he had to hold them to stay on.

“They suit you, you should keep them”, Kuroo said, still trying hard not to laugh.

Kenma huffed irritatedly but didn’t say anything. He forgot to pack his glasses so this was basically his own fault. But he only had to deal with it for the rest of the day, he’d pack them for tomorrow.

“Hey, don’t sulk. Give them to me and let me try them on, I’ll switch with you if they fit me.”

Luckily for Kenma they did fit Kuroo, not that they were any more fashionable but they stayed on his face, so they changed glasses for the time being. 

When they started working Kenma hoped from the bottom of his heart that Kuroo knew what he was doing. His scholarship depended on his grades and they depended on the results they’d get from their experiments. He had high hopes since Kuroo was already one year above him but he was still concerned. Especially when he asked him to borrow him a few sheets because he had forgotten to bring something to write on.

Regardless of his lab partner, Kenma enjoyed being back at the laboratory again. The familiar smell of acetone in the air, the rattling of test tubes and other glass containers and the focused way everyone was working always made him feel comfortable. Of course not to forget the chinking sound of glass breaking, students swearing and the foul odour of sulphur that every lab brought along.

 

“You have to pour it in carefully. Slow down, you’re going to pour some next to it!” Kenma watched intensely as Kuroo tried to transfer a solution from one beaker into another. “I told you that we should’ve used the smaller one from the start.”

“Well, how about you do it if you know it so much better.” Kuroo put it down and handed the beaker to Kenma.

One of the things he had realized pretty quickly is that Kuroo had not so much consideration for their instructions as he wished he would. He knew how things were theoretically done but he didn’t pay attention to the details in their script. It was only the first day but his this-will-do-attitude was already starting to grate on Kenma’s nerves.

He shrugged and just started pouring it in himself.

“Hey hey hey! Look who we have here!” Someone boomed right next to them. Kenma flinched and almost dropped the beaker on the ground.

He looked up, ready to give whomever had disturbed him a disapproving stare but he stopped himself soon enough. The culprit was in fact the lab assistant - and you never wanted to piss off the lab assistant - who also seemed to be a friend of Kuroo’s.

“I’ve been waiting for you to finally show your face around here. Having fun?” He had large eyes and his hair was styled in a strange manner, almost as if he was trying to create two spikes with it. A weird hairstyle was already something that he had in common with Kuroo though Kenma assumed that it took a bit more time to achieve that kind of style.

“Sure, my lab partner is the cute scholarship junior that Tsukki told you about, can you believe that?” He was talking about Kenma as if he wasn’t standing right next to them.

Kenma rolled his eyes and ignored them. He wasn’t here to listen to their patronizing comments so he continued working while Kuroo was still chatting. If he wanted to waste time he could feel free to do so, but they had a busy schedule and if he missed something that they needed to protocol then it was his problem not Kenma’s. He wished he could measure, experiment and protocol everything on his own, he didn’t need a second person to meddle with his way of working.

He decided to share his pain with his best friend and quickly send him a text.

_To: Shouyou_

_Ugh, my lab partner is so irritating, i’d rather do everything on my own..._

Shouyou was amazing. He was the first friend Kenma made at uni when he had no idea what he was even doing. He accidently got the wrong lecture hall but when he noticed the professor had already started the course so he felt too awkward to leave. He remembered how helpless he felt back then because he was missing his own class but didn’t dare to get up. Shouyou was sitting next to him and just started talking to him. Even though they were from entirely different faculties he urged Kenma into giving him his contact information and they’ve been in touch since then.

Kenma was lost in his work when Kuroo nudged him in his side. “Hey, don’t just go on without me. What are you doing right now?”

He sighed. What a hassle.

 

Despite Kuroo always messing around and the lab assistant constantly interrupting them, they actually finished in time and got to go home in the early afternoon. The university provided them with locker rooms where they could store their belongings and change into their lab coat for the duration of the laboratory.

“For the first day it wasn’t that bad, was it?” Kuroo asked while unbuttoning his lab coat.

‘Not that bad’ wasn’t exactly how Kenma would’ve described that day but he nodded half-heartedly. “Yeah, it was alright.” He was already looking forward to going home and just sitting down for a while. His feet were killing him.

“By the way, let’s exchange phone numbers. In case one of us is late or needs something and we’re going to need it for the post-lab report later anyways.” Kuroo handed his phone to Kenma.

He was too taken aback to object so he simply typed his number in and saved the contact.

“Great, I’ll quickly send you a text with my name....there you go...” Kuroo put his phone back in his pocket. “So, do you want to grab something to eat and then have a look at the script together?”

They had an exam each Friday about the chapters they had been working on. Usually people underestimated all the work that came with a lab. You had exams throughout the lab, you had to write a post-lab report which was most of the time more work than the actual lab itself and you had to prepare yourself for the experiments you needed to get done the next day. Though Kenma wanted nothing more than to lie down and do nothing for a while he nodded. Doing this together was, though he admitted it only reluctantly, a bit easier than having to do it on your own.

They got sandwiches from the supermarket and Kuroo led him to a quiet corner around the library to study properly. Kenma had never wandered around campus that much, he preferred to study at his apartment since it was quiet and he had everything he needed there.

“So you’re always studying here?” Kenma didn’t care all too much but he tried to ask a few things as well so the conversation wasn’t too one sided.

 “I share an apartment with four other people so it’s almost impossible to find a moment of silence. This is my secret spot so don’t tell anybody.” Kuroo’s usual grin changed to a serious expression.

Kenma didn’t know why he would want this to be a secret but he nodded earnestly.” Of course, I won’t tell anyone.”

Kuroo suddenly covered his hand with his mouth and his face was bright red. Was he feeling sick? Kenma was just about to ask him if he was alright when he burst out laughing. “Oh god, I can’t believe you took that serious right now! I was only joking around, that was just too good!”

Kenma looked at him with a deadpan expression. He couldn’t believe he was worried about that idiot even for a second. “Yeah, very funny, I can’t stop laughing.”

Kuroo wiped tears out of the corner of his eyes.”Come on, don’t be mad. I just didn’t expect that response. ”

When Kenma was not responding he pushed his chair back and got up. “I’ll go and get us some coffee, it’s on me. Do you want sugar in yours?”

“Yes please”, he mumbled.

When Kuroo was around the corner he leaned forward and buried his head in his arms. Now that he was alone he could feel his face heating up and the embarrassment floating through every inch of his body. He had treated him like a kid during the whole day, giving him that stupid nickname and all. Kenma had assumed that Kuroo finally thought he was reliable which is why he had responded so eagerly only to make an even bigger fool out of himself.

He checked his phone to see if Shouyou had responded. He carefully looked around before reading the message, not that Kuroo came back and saw what he had written about him.

_From: Shouyou_

_that rly reminded me of something someone else i know would say. but u’re so awesome i’m sure u’ll find a way to get along, just think of it as a game^^_

If only it would be that easy.

He just finished typing his response when Kuroo arrived with the coffee. He was holding the cups with his fingertips so he wouldn’t burn himself. “There you go, yours is the left one.”

“Thanks. Why is mine the left one?” Kenma wrapped his hands around the cup. He didn’t mind the heat, his fingers were constantly cold.

“I don’t add sugar, I think it takes a bit away from the coffee flavour”, Kuroo said.

Kenma narrowed his eyes. Wasn’t that exactly the point of adding sugar? He hated coffee. It was bitter and no matter how much milk and sugar he added he couldn’t get used to the taste. But since it was apparently social norm to drink coffee and also because he was tired of people acting like they couldn’t understand how he survived without coffee he had started to drink it anyways.

“So you’re telling me that it tastes good without sugar?” Kenma took a sip of his own cup. Ugh, was there even any sugar in it?

“Wait a second, I think I got them mixed up after all. I only took a small sip, it’s not like I have any contagious diseases”, he added when he saw Kenma glancing suspiciously at his cup after they exchanged them.

He was really opposed to drinking out of a cup that someone else has already used but on the other hand, Kenma couldn’t throw the coffee away because of that reason so he tried it. The sugar did improve the taste but it was still not much better. “So why are you leaving the sugar away again?”

“Actually there was a time when we didn’t have any sugar at our apartment because everyone constantly kept forgetting to buy some, so I got used to it”, Kuroo explained. “Oh, Bokuto – the lab assistant – is one of my roommates. He was the one who suggested that we’d all share an apartment, actually.”

Kenma couldn’t imagine how one could share an apartment with four other people. He lived alone in a small apartment, though Lev was living at the same apartment complex as him so he wasn’t completely on his own. Kenma had spent the first year of university in a dorm and he had counted the days until he could finally move out from there. There was constantly turmoil in the middle of the night, no matter what day of the week it was and people were so inconsiderate, he was glad that he got out of there.

“That sounds exhausting but I’m sure it also has its perks, your apartment must be really spacious if so many people share it”, Kenma said.

Kuroo hesitated for a second as if he was recalling something, then he smiled again. “Yeah, it comes with some trouble but it can be fun as well. Do you live at a dorm?”

“I did but I didn’t particularly like it, I have an apartment on my own now. It’s just one room and a small bathroom though, so it’s nothing special.”

“Wow, an apartment just for yourself. Sounds amazing.” He was still grinning but Kenma wasn’t sure if he might not have heard some bitterness in his voice. Kuroo looked at his watch. “So, how about we start working?”

They began with the results that they’ve gotten from this day’s experiments and worked all their way through, continuing with the preparations for the next day.

 

The sun was already starting to set when Kenma finally got home, hungry and exhausted. He texted Lev a quick “Pizza?” and lay down on his bed, not even minding the pile of clothes that he was laying in. All the tension he had felt during this day has been lifted from his shoulders and he finally allowed his distress to show. Kenma’s heart was racing and his hands were shaking. He might have acted confident during the day but deep inside he was still the anxious mess he had always been, he had simply gotten better at hiding that over the years. Kuroo was difficult to handle. He had this laid-back attitude and something that Kenma could only describe as natural confidence.

 Now when it came to working in pairs there were usually two situations that occurred. Either you end up taking the lead but that means all the responsibility is on you or you are the one listening to the other person which means you have to do what they say. The ideal case would be working in equilibrium but that rarely ever happens as Kenma could tell from experience. Right when he was pondering which position would be wiser in his case he received a follow-up message from Lev saying that the pizza was here.

He groaned and got up from his bed. They often ordered food and usually they ate at Lev’s place. The main reason for that was because Kenma refused to call the pizza guy himself and always made Lev do it.

“So how’s the lab been so far?” Lev asked while they ate.

Kenma let out a huge sigh. “We have to work in pairs and we can’t even choose our partner, it’s sorted according to our last names.”

“Damn, sounds like a pain in the ass. So who’re you working together with?”

“His name’s Kuroo Tetsurou, I’ve never seen him before but he’s two semesters ahead of us. He’s very energetic and self-confident, I’m not sure if we’re going to get along.” Kenma rubbed the back of his neck. “He never pays attention to the script and acts so impulsive, he does things just out of a whim. On the other hand he is friends with the lab assistant so that might be helpful.”

Lev nodded understandingly. They had all gotten lab partners that ended up being a catastrophe so he felt with him.

“I think I’m going back to my place now and go to bed, I’m already pretty tired”, Kenma stated after a while.

“Sure, keep me up to date with the lab and have fun tomorrow.” Lev grinned and ate the leftover slice of Kenma’s pizza. He didn’t even accompany him out, they’ve gotten used to coming and going to each other’s places whenever they felt like it.

Back at his own apartment Kenma did end up in bed but along with his PSP which wasn’t such a promising combination. He had genuinely planned to go to bed early but he ended up playing until 1am after all. One day he’d make it and follow his own advice because he could already tell that he was going to hate himself for doing this in the morning.

 

“Are you sure you checked all the data? This doesn’t seem right somehow.” Kenma showed the two graphs to Kuroo and suppressed a yawn. It was already Thursday but time was everything but flying.

“Let me see.” Kuroo gave the sheet a sceptic look. “It does seem off, the last two measurement for the second graph are supposed to be higher according to the script. And I asked the other group as well and they got different results.”

Kenma stared at it one more time but there was no way around it, if those were their actual stats then they had to start over again. “I’ll ask Bokuto and see if he has some advice.”

“Yeah, but I think...Never mind, just ask him”, Kuroo said.

“No, you wanted to say something?”

Kuroo shook his head. “It doesn’t matter, really. We’re wasting time right now.”

That got Kenma back on his track. If they had to start over again then they had no time to lose.

Bokuto could, as usual, be found on the bench next to them, bothering Akaashi, whom Kenma had also gotten to know over the past few days.

“I’m sorry, I have a quick question about this experiment”, Kenma interrupted.

“Oh sure, what’s the problem”, Bokuto said.

Kenma could hear Akaashi mumble a quiet “Thank god.” which Bokuto apparently didn’t pick up.

“It’s these two graphs. I’ve only added them in as a scatter diagram but for the second graph are the last few results too low.” Kenma pointed at the red dots which marked the data for the second graph.

“What do you mean with the second graph? You only have some dots scattered everywhere, you haven’t connected them yet?”

“Well, these ones- ,” he pointed at the black ones” – are for the first graph and the other ones are for the second graph.” Why was that so difficult to understand?

Bokuto was looking more and more confused. “Yeah, but how do you distinguish them?”

Kenma looked at the diagram in disbelief. “What are you talking about? The black ones are from the first measurement series and the red ones are from the second measurement series?”

“Ohh, I get it now. I have protanomaly, that’s a defect of vision concerning the colour red. I couldn’t tell the difference between those small dots, I’m so sorry. “He made a dejected impression. “But if that’s the case then I guess you should do the second one again. I was just confused because your diagram didn’t really correlate with what you were saying.”

Kenma felt his cheeks heat up. There was no way how he could have known that. “No, I’m the one that’s sorry. I didn’t know that, it was not on purpose. “

“No, it was my mistake. I’m not fit to be a lab assistant if I can’t even manage this much. I’m not fit to help you out anymore.” Bokuto hid his face behind one hand and turned away.

Kenma stood there helplessly. Should he comfort him?

“Bokuto, we need some help with the chromatography and there’s no one who knows better how that works then you.” Akaashi saved him from this awkward situation after all because a second later Bokuto’s cheerful expression was back again. Kenma gave him a grateful smile and walked back to his workspace.

Kuroo was standing there, already waiting for him to return. “So how did it go?”

“You knew that! You knew and you didn’t tell me!” Kenma stared at him accusingly.

“I have no idea what you are talking about, what am I supposed to know?” He grinned and rested his arm on Kenma’s shoulder.

Kenma elbowed him in the side in an attempt to shake the arm off. “Don’t act so innocent, you knew about Bokuto not being able to see red colours and didn’t tell me. And you can wipe that smug grin off your face because we have to start over again. And take your arm off my shoulder! “

It was no surprise to both of them that they were the last ones to leave the lab on that day. Though they sat down and prepared for the next day as usual, Kuroo constantly stared at his watch and excused himself after one hour. Kenma, who had come to enjoy the quiet spot, stayed for a while and studied on his own.

 

On Friday you could, if you paid close attention, feel that the atmosphere has changed from the days before. Everyone was looking forward to the weekend and the slight relaxation it offered. Kenma planned to do nothing as soon as he got home and use the day to relay a bit. The post-lab report could wait for a day. 

“So, any plans for the weekend?” Kuroo asked while Kenma added a few droplets of hydrochloric acid to their solution.

Usually Kuroo watched on the other side of the test tube in order to double check that the right amount of substance was added. Since it wasn’t that important how much they added this time Kenma looked past the test tube at Kuroo’s face, only to realize that he was gazing right at him. He quickly focused on the test tube again. “N-nothing particular. How about you?” Damn, what was he getting self-conscious for right now?

“On Saturday there’s a huge party at one of the dorms and everyone is invited. Do you want to tag along, Bokuto is coming as well.” Kuroo was still looking at him, Kenma could tell.

“No thanks, I think I’m busy with the lab preparations. It wouldn’t hurt you to do the same either, just saying”, Kenma mentioned.

Kuroo sighed. “It’s going to be amazing and you think about studying. It’s fine though but you’re missing out on a huge party. But you can always change your mind just so you know.”

Kenma didn’t care much for the party so he was sure that he wasn’t going to. But he did appreciate Kuroo asking him.

When they finally left the lab for good on that day Kuroo said that he had to get somewhere urgently and was gone within a minute. Kenma had actually expected them to go to their usual spot but he didn’t give it much thought. There was the weekend after all so they could do that on their own as well and he got to go home earlier which was fine by him.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I once got sorted into the wrong group because a professor made that mistake and my mind wandered^^ This is all based on how my university works so if there's something that's unclear just ask and I'll explain everything. 
> 
>  
> 
> I'm looking for some help right now cause I'm in urgent need of someone to proofread the next chapters before I post them. English isn't my first language so I need help with spelling and grammar checks, and maybe also with university vocabulary cause I'm not sure if I'm using the right terminology, that would be great^^ If you are interested just send me a message on [ tumblr ](http://s-ugawarakoushi.tumblr.com/) , I'd really appreciate it <3


	2. You make my heart feel like it's summer

_"Catalyst: A substance that accelerates a chemical reaction without being affected itself."_

 

„Kuroo? Yeah, of course I know him.“

“So...you _know_ know him? Anything...you know, interesting?”

It was Saturday afternoon and Kenma was currently at Lev’s place together with Yamaguchi. He only mentioned Kuroo’s name casually because he hadn’t thought that Yamaguchi would actually know him, given that they mostly shared the same circle of friends.

“Well...He’s a bit overbearing but if you get to know him better he’s very considerate and thoughtful, I guess.” Yamaguchi shrugged. “I’ve known him for quite some time, he’s a roommate...of Tsukki.”

Kenma wanted to ask further questions - just out of curiosity, of course - but he knew well enough that he was walking on thin ice. For some reason that Kenma hadn’t figured out yet, Yamaguchi reacted extremely sensitive to the topic of his boyfriend’s apartment. He didn’t want to ask because it wasn’t his business and he didn’t want to prod into Yamaguchi’s private life. If he wanted to let Kenma in then he would have done so already.

Kenma had once worked on a project for Tsukishima during the summer holidays. Yamaguchi had asked him just out of the blue if he wanted to work for his boyfriend because he was in need of an assistant. He had simply evaded the question why he himself wasn’t working with him and explained that he “already had other plans for the summer”. Tsukishima was a person that Kenma was very comfortable working with, confident, independent and smart.

 Kenma was usually the last person to notice but he had the sense that Yamaguchi had been fighting with him recently. He didn’t know exactly what was going on but Yamaguchi didn’t mention anything either.

“Considerate and thoughtful? Is this the same Kuroo we’re talking about? He’s rather the opposite of how you described him.” Kenma tried to direct the conversation topic back to Kuroo and away from the apartment. “So anything else noteworthy about him?”

He remembered how, during the first day, he said that he wasn’t there to make friends, mainly because he was still annoyed by being put in the wrong group, but curiosity got the better of him. He had the chance to ask questions so why shouldn’t he? And Kuroo said that he had heard about Kenma before so it was fine that he did the same. Now that he thought about it, Tsukishima must have talked about him.

“He’s working a lot because...you know, we all need to support ourselves somehow.” Yamaguchi laughed nervously and was suddenly watching his phone very intently. Kenma had the feeling that he wanted to tell him something and changed his mind halfway through but on the other hand Yamaguchi had been fidgeting with his phone since he arrived. Maybe he started to imagine things.

 “Tsukishima is leaving for the next two months, isn’t he?” Lev asked, probably referring to the fact that Yamaguchi constantly checked his phone.

“Yeah, he’ll be gone for quite a while. But I’m sure time’s going to fly.” Yamaguchi smiled lightly but his discomfort was clearly noticeable.

Lev grinned. “That means we have to spend more time together, so you won’t get lonely!”

Now Yamaguchi was laughing as well. “Now that you mention it, I think I’ll be very busy during the next two months.”

“What? You can’t do this to me! Kenma doesn’t have time and Yaku is always busy, I’ll just sit in my room and die of loneliness if you abandon me as well”, Lev said and looked at Yamaguchi with sad eyes.

“Fine, then I’ll sacrifice myself and spend some time with you. It’s not like we’re hanging out all of the time already.”

Kenma quietly watched them fooling around for some time, he enjoyed the moment while he still could. His post-lab report and documents were lurking in his room, just waiting for him to spend his entire evening on them and there was little that he’d like to do less.

In the end he gave in and left the two of them alone, the feeling that he was supposed to be working instead was constantly on his mind. He felt much more at ease when he finally got some work done, only to be interrupted by a text message.

He assumed it was Shouyou, whom he had kept updated about his exhausting lab partner, but it was said lab partner instead.

_From: Kuroo Lab_

_Hey!! The offer for the party tonight still stands, you definitely need to come!!_

Kenma started typing a response over and over again. Texting a person you didn’t know that well was a much more difficult task than people assumed. It required more delicacy and a neutral way of wording. To put it simple, Kenma didn’t know how to turn him down without sounding like a killjoy. On the other hand, going to a party where he knew nobody except for two people – and he didn’t even know them properly – was out of the question. He didn’t need any fortunetelling abilities to see where that would end. He didn’t mind parties with his friends and a moderate amount of people but going clubbing was not his cup of tea.

Even so he was a bit taken aback by the message since he had initially assumed that Kuroo had only asked him out of politeness, not because he really meant it. That wasn’t enough to change his mind but maybe he had underestimated Kuroo a bit.

 

Ideally Monday was the most productive day of the week. Everyone had gotten some time to relax over the weekend and prepare themselves especially well to begin the week with a good start. Ideally.

In reality Monday was a gloomy day where everyone wanted to crawl into a dark, hidden place and stay there for the rest of the day. Much to Kenma’s surprise Kuroo was even more tired than he himself. He assured Kenma that he wasn’t exhausted at all but the bags under his eyes spoke for themselves.

“Kuroo, could you please pass me a test tube”, Kenma held his hand out but it was still empty after a few seconds. “Kuroo?”

He looked up and saw that his lab partner was leaning against the table, his eyes closed and his head tilted back. Kenma gave him a quick shove to wake him up again.

“I was just taking a quick break, you didn’t need me right now anyways”, he explained while he yawned shamelessly.

“I told you already that one person is working and the other one washes the test tubes so they are ready when we need them again. We’re losing so much time for this, why can’t you work together with me on this one?” Kenma rolled his eyes and went back to work. Kuroo could party all weekend long and Kenma couldn’t care less, but if he was only going to cause problems because he wasn’t in a good condition then it was his problem as well.

“Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to that right away. If Mr. Scholarship gives orders I’m of course immediately at service.” He gave him a lazy smile and walked over to the sink.

Kenma wondered if he could get away with pouring acid over another person’s backpack and make it look like an accident. Probably not.

Work progressed smoothly, leaving Kuroo’s not so subtle attempts at dozing off while Kenma wasn’t paying attention to him aside. 

“Finished measuring the samples?” Kuroo asked, peeking over Kenma’s shoulder to see what he was doing.

“Almost. The extracted chloroform solution is the only one that’s missing, have you prepared a sample yet?” Kenma looked up from the device and wrote a result down.

“The chloroform? Are you referring to the solution you put in the beaker and not a test tube like all the others? Are you sure we even need to measure that one.”

Kenma did not miss the concern in Kuroo’s voice and finally turned around. He had the suspicion that he already knew what had happened to their solution.  “Yes, I’m pretty sure that we still need that since that’s what is written in the instructions. You didn’t pour it away, did you?”

Kuroo gave him an apologetic smile. “I’ve already started to clean everything and I assumed we don’t need it anymore, my bad.”

“And what do you suggest we do now, without the result?” Kenma replied dryly. What was that again about pouring acid over someone’s belongings?

“First you say that I should wash the test tubes and now you complain that I wash them. Make up your mind or you can do it by yourself.” Kuroo walked away to Akaashi’s bench, leaving a fuming Kenma behind.

‘Fine, walk away instead of coming up with a solution!’ Kenma shouted in his head because he didn’t have the guts to say it out loud. He sat down again, trying to come up with a way to make up for the lost result on his own. Maybe there was a way to roughly calculate and estimate it. He was used to this, after all he was always the one that got stuck with having to do all the work on his own.

 

 “Hey, Akaashi! Konoha! Do you have a minute?” Kuroo walked over to their bench. He wasn’t even remotely mad at Kenma, it was his own fault after all. He waited for a second until Akaashi handed his work over to his lab partner Konoha.

“Yes? Do you need help with something?”

Of course Bokuto was here as well, playing on his phone but as soon as he heard Kuroo’s voice he looked up.  

“Ohoho, did someone screw up?”  He said in a teasing tone.

Kuroo ran a hand through his hair, making it even messier. “Not that badly, I poured the final chloroform solution from experiment 12 away before we could measure it. You’ve already finished that one so I wanted to ask if we could use your result instead”, he said, directed towards Akaashi.

It was common to ‘trade’ results like that because not every experiment worked out exactly like it should for everyone. It was tolerated by the professors and lab assistants as long as it didn’t get out of hand. You would obviously get in trouble for copying entire experiments or half of another person’s lab journal.

Akaashi nodded. “Sure, I’ll look it up for you.”

While he flipped through his lab journal Kuroo leaned against the wall to rest a bit.

“I’m so tired I could lie down on the floor and fall asleep this instant”, he complained. “And now Kenma is mad at me for pouring that damn solution away, what a meticulous guy... Just give me a break already!”

“You realize that it’s only Monday, right?” Bokuto was grinning but the small hint of concern didn’t go unnoticed by Kuroo.

“Ugh, why are we even friends again?” He could already feel the massive headache coming.

“Bro, don’t say that. “ Bokuto shook his head in disbelieve and wiped an imaginary tear away. “But in all seriousness, are you doing all right?”

Kuroo shrugged. “Could be better but it will work out in the end. Doesn’t it always?”

“I wish I was a bigger help but with Tsukki gone for the next two months there isn’t much that I can do. That’s usually his responsibility, he’s always the guy with the answers.” Bokuto gave Kuroo a not so gentle shove with his shoulder. “But it will be fine, now go over there and get working.”

Kuroo wrote Akaashi’s result down and walked back to his own bench.

 

Kenma hadn’t gotten far with his calculations. He had an estimated result but it was not reliable enough to use in their post-lab report. It was so frustrating.

“Kenma?” He felt a gentle pat on his shoulder.

He flinched and turned around to Kuroo, his lips forming a thin line. Kenma wasn’t the type to get angry easily, he rather let his irritation built up until he snapped. Usually the only way you could tell was by him being offhand when talking to another person.

“What?” Kenma asked, trying his best not so sound annoyed. He was still intimidated enough by Kuroo’s appearance to keep him from speaking up.

“I have Akaashi’s and Konoha’s result here, we can use that one”, Kuroo explained.

Kenma was silent for a second. He did not expect that. He had assumed that Kuroo had walked away, leaving him to deal with the problem on his own, not solving it.

“Oh...that’s good then. Thanks.” He tried his best not to feel guilty about misjudging Kuroo. He had been sleepy this whole day and not everyone was always in a top condition. Sometimes you had bad days and that was okay. He felt like he owed Kuroo an apology.

Maybe Kuroo had noticed the guilt in his voice but he gave him a soft pat on his back. “Take it easy, it’s no big deal! We’ll be finished in a few minutes and then let’s eat something and relax a bit. You’ve been agitated this whole day. “

Only now that Kuroo mentioned it he realized how strained he had been. He had not only been concentrated on the experiments but also constantly worried about Kuroo, making sure that he was alright.  He had been annoyed about Kuroo not being that much of a help as he was supposed to be but that didn’t mean he wasn’t concerned at all.

 

This time they didn’t go to their usual place. Kuroo took Kenma to the library, roaming around until they found a spot with a sofa and a table. They were in one of the more secluded areas of the library, there weren’t that many people around. People went here to study alone, if you wanted to study with someone together you usually chose one of the study areas where it was okay to talk aloud. Here it was extremely quiet, which is why Kenma wondered why they were even here in the first place. Kuroo on the other hand headed right for the couch. It was a large red couch, already worn out at some places.

“Now this is exactly what I need right now!” Kuroo said and threw himself onto it. “Ah, this is my new home now. Just leave me here for the rest of the day.”

Kenma waited for a second but Kuroo didn’t show any indications that he was going to move any time soon. He put his backpack on the table and stood there awkwardly. “I suppose I’ll go and look for a chair then.”

“Don’t be ridiculous, there’s enough space for the two of us on here.” Kuroo didn’t get up to make space for Kenma, he simply moved a bit so his feet were dangling over the armrest and created a spot for him to sit right next to his head.

He did regard Kuroo with a critical look but then he shrugged and sat down. He was most definitely not going to march through the entire library to look for a spare chair somewhere.

“Got enough space there?” Kuroo asked when Kenma wedged himself in between the armrest and his head.

“Yes, I’m fine.” Kenma hesitated. He genuinely didn’t want to ask this but he felt obligated to at least offer the option. “Do you...maybe...want to rest your head on my lap?”

_‘Please say no. Please say no. Please say no.’_

Kuroo tilted his head back, staring right at Kenma’s face. “You don’t have to say that with such a repulsed face”, he laughed. “But thanks, I’m good. Just let me sleep for twenty minutes and then we’ll start.”

Kenma nodded. He was going to allow himself to take a break as well and pass the time with playing some game he had on his phone.

To his surprise Kuroo fell asleep pretty quickly. He moved around a bit until he had found a comfortable position but as soon as he closed his eyes he was sleeping.

Kenma was careful not to make any sudden movements in order to not wake him up. Now that Kuroo was asleep Kenma allowed himself to take a closer look at his face. The first thing he noticed were the prominent dark circles under his eyes. He did seem pale as well but Kenma assumed that that was mainly the result of exhaustion over the day.

Kenma leaned back, resisting the urge to follow Kuroo’s example and nap for a few minutes. He felt oddly at peace at that very moment. It was one of those rare occasions in which he was extremely aware of himself and his surroundings. He knew that he was a serious person, always overanalyzing and worrying about everything. And here he was, exhausted, sitting on a couch while his lab partner was taking a short power nap next to him.

He wondered why Kuroo was comfortable around him so quickly. He would never do the same with a person he had only known for one week. He did admire his laid-back attitude, sometimes he wished he could be that person as well. Easy-going, friendly, communicative.

Kuroo let out a quiet sigh and shifted around. Kenma felt his hair brush over his leg and he was suddenly aware that he had been absentmindedly staring at his face the whole time.

He quickly averted his gaze, though there was no way for Kuroo to have noticed this since he was still asleep. Nevertheless Kenma focused on his game again, trying to level up his character cards.

“Kuroo.” Kenma nudged him carefully. He had even waited five minutes longer to wake him up because he felt like he could use that time.

“Mmm..” Kuroo simply ignored him and covered his ears with his hands.

“Kuroo. The time is already up. If you sleep longer it’s going to make you even more tired.” Kenma explained in an attempt at getting him up.

Kuroo opened one eye and squinted at him. “That’s a risk I’m willing to take, just five more minutes.”

Kenma sighed. He felt like he was arguing with a child.

“Fine.” Kuroo propped himself up on his arm and peeked at Kenma’s phone. “What are you playing there?”

“Nothing, just some game to pass the time”, he responded. He was about to explain how it worked when his stomach growled, right in a moment of silence where Kuroo could hear it clearly as well. Kenma wanted to dig a hole and disappear. Why was his body betraying him like this?

He expected Kuroo to laugh at him again but he was looking rather concerned. “Oh, we haven’t eaten yet, have we? I’m sorry, you shouldn’t have waited for me to wake up.”

Kenma was still embarrassed but he tried to not draw attention to that fact. Instead he pulled his lunch out of backpack like Kuroo did.

“Are you feeling better now?” Kenma asked after they had finished.

Kuroo nodded and stretched his arms demonstratively. “I could sleep for twenty-four hours straight right now but I’m definitely better than before.”

“That’s good.” Kenma didn’t know what else to say. He assumed that Kuroo wouldn’t appreciate his advice to maybe not party the whole weekend and rather get some sleep.

“So what were you doing on the weekend? I missed you on Saturday, it would’ve been so great to see you there”, Kuroo said.

“I’m...not that much into parties. And maybe you should’ve held back a bit on the weekend as well so you’d be less tired at the moment.” That was as much as he dared to say. Kenma held his breath while waiting for Kuroo’s reaction.

He grinned, surprising Kenma again with his response. “I’m sorry, I forgot to tell you that I’m not there as a party guest. I work as a bartender at a club, I was there for work. It’s called _‘Il Gatto Nero’_ , maybe you’ve heard of it before. Bokuto comes to keep me company sometimes, so maybe you got the wrong idea there.”

“Oh, so that’s why you had to leave early on Thursday and Friday?” Now he felt bad for thinking that harshly of Kuroo. He had been working and he had accused him of doing nothing the whole weekend.

Kuroo nodded. “I usually only work on Tuesday and Friday evening but last week I worked on Saturday too so I can take this Friday off. “

“That sounds exhausting.”

Kuroo scoffed. “Yeah, like you can imagine that. “

Kenma shrank back a bit. Did he say something wrong?

“I’m sorry, didn’t mean that.  I’m always a bit grumpy right after waking up.” Kuroo rubbed his eyes. “Enough with this now, let’s finally get started.”

It was weird to be in a different place than usual, the atmosphere was different since there were more people walking by. They unpacked their things, using the whole table as usual. It was almost ridiculous how much space they took up but Kenma liked to spread everything out. It was an organization method he liked. He wanted everything to be visible at the first glance, not having to dig through stacks of paper to finally find the one sheet he had been looking for. As he was going through the tasks they had to work on for that day Kenma noticed a sheet of formulas that didn’t belong to their lab documents.

“Is that yours?” He handed it to Kuroo.

“Oh yeah, thanks.” Kuroo carelessly crammed it in his bag.

“Wasn’t that important? The paper will be completely crumpled like this.”

Kuroo shrugged. “That was just a random sheet, nothing special.”

Kenma wasn’t quite sure if he was being truthful but he didn’t want to tamper with someone else’s business. He didn’t want to tell him so he must have his reasons.

 

Kuroo and Kenma were cleaning up their place on Wednesday, right about to head over to the library, when Bokuto burst through the door. He was grinning from one ear to the other which was never a good sign.

“Kuroo, remember that one thing we said we wanted to do once? Right when we started with uni?” His eyes were almost sparkling with excitement.

Kuroo shrugged. “We wanted to do lots of things, what are you talking about?”

“I’ll give you a hint: Water, lots of water.”

Kuroo lingered for a second, Kenma could almost pinpoint his moment of realization. “Oh god, you didn’t?!”

“You bet I did. We were stocking up our supplies and I thought that was the perfect chance to include a small order for personal usage.”

“So you have it here?” Now Kuroo had the same dangerous sparkle in his eyes.

Kenma didn’t know what they were talking about but seeing both of them so excited could only mean trouble.

“The order just came in. How about we go right now, after we’re finished here?”

“I don’t know man, it’s in the middle of the week and I’ve got stuff to do.”

Bokuto looked at him like he couldn’t believe what he just said. “You’ve been studying this whole time, one day won’t kill you! And we wanted to do this since forever, we can take my car and be back in just a moment.”

Kuroo gave it some thought but he nodded eventually. “Fine, let’s do this. You’re going to tag along as well”, he said, directed towards Kenma.

Kenma, who had been watching them, didn’t expect to be spoken to so quickly. He looked at Kuroo, a bit perplexed. He was doing something with a friend of his and he told Kenma, a person he knows for one and a half weeks, to come along as if it was only natural. And he didn’t ask, he said it like it was something he had already decided.

 

“What are we actually doing?” Kenma asked on their way to the car.

They had left right as soon as they had finished the lab, Bokuto carrying some mystery container. Akaashi was coming along as well, which Kenma appreciated a lot. It hadn’t taken him long to figure out that Kuroo and Bokuto together were more than he could handle.

“I’d love to tell you but wouldn’t that ruin the surprise?” Kuroo said with a grin. “It’s going to be great, trust me.”

He didn’t miss the suspicious look he received from Kenma but he simply nudged him in the side. “Don’t be so sceptic, we’re having a fun short trip and you have Akaashi as moral support.”

Kenma was about to retort when Kuroo shouted “Shotgun!” on top of his lungs.

Bokuto’s car was bright red. The paint was starting to chip off at the edges and Kenma spotted a few dents just by glancing over it.

“It might be old, but it’s still working perfectly fine”, Bokuto said, tapping against it which made another bit of paint fall down.

Kenma was sharing the backseat with Akaashi, squeezed in between him and some crates Bokuto stored in there. Kenma didn’t mind sitting in the middle, that way he could see where they were driving.

“Yeeeeeah! Are you guys in the back comfy?” Bokuto shouted as soon as they had closed the doors and put their seatbelts on. “Then let’s go! The food can wait, we’ll eat something on our way back.”

“Wait a second, Akaashi and Kenma haven’t eaten anything yet and neither have I. There’s enough time to get something from a drive through, you need to eat something as well”, Kuroo immediately said.

Even though Bokuto complained about wasting precious time they got something to eat, much to everyone else’s relieve.

They were driving in silence while they were eating, but Kenma knew that that moment of peace and quiet was only of short duration. 

“Oh, I almost forgot to show you this!” Bokuto pulled something out of his car’s side pocket. Kenma couldn’t see what he was doing in front but judging from Kuroo’s reaction it must be something exciting.

“Akaashi, what do you think?”

“I can’t see a thing.”

“Oh.” Bokuto turned around. He was wearing sunglasses but they weren’t just sunglasses. In the middle was a beak attached and the frame fanned out on the top edges, making it look like the ears of an owl. “So?” He looked at Akaashi expectantly.

“These are the ugliest sunglasses I’ve ever seen. And could you please face to the front, this is making me uncomfortable”, he replied unimpressed.

Bokuto turned to the front in defeat. “They are great, Kuroo likes them as well. Right?”

“Bro, you look amazing!”

Akaashi sighed. “Please stop encouraging him, Kuroo. They look ridiculous, take them off.”

“If by ridiculous you mean awesome then, yes they are and no, I will not take them off.”

“Take them off.”

“No, you’re just jealous because you don’t have sunglasses this awesome.”

Akaashi was sitting right behind Bokuto, so he leaned forward and simply plucked the sunglasses off his face. “There you go, problem solved.”

“I’m a mighty owl! You can’t just take my sunglasses like that. Give them back!”

He didn’t say anything or make any attempt at giving the sunglasses back to him.

 “Akaashi! If you don’t give them back I’ll stop the car”, Bokuto said.

“Stop being a kid, it’s just a pair of sunglasses.”

Bokuto held his right hand back wordlessly, waiting for Akaashi to give him the sunglasses back. Akaashi on the other hand kept them firmly in his hand, having no intentions of returning them.

“Fine, have it your way then.” Bokuto snapped.

For a moment Kenma thought that he had given in and the problem was resolved, but as soon as they reached a bus stop Bokuto pulled the car over.

“We’re going to stay here until I have my sunglasses back.”

They both kept stubbornly silent.

“Oh come on, you can’t be serious!” Kuroo clasped his hands above his head. “Akaashi, just give him his goddamn sunglasses.”

Akaashi rolled his eyes. Only very reluctantly did he hand them to Bokuto, mainly because of Kuroo’s desperate comments.

As soon as Bokuto had his sunglasses again he was back to his old self, grinning form on ear to another and they continued their journey.

Kenma had watched that whole scenario wordlessly. At first he wasn’t sure about tagging along with them but they were interesting people, he really enjoyed being around them as a group.

 

It took them about 45 minutes to get to their desired destination which was a hill somewhere outside of the city, surrounded by a few trees which run together to a forest to the right.

Kenma stretched his arms and arched his back after he finally got out of the car. “So, what are we doing here in the middle of nowhere?”

“Just walk the hill up, I’ll explain it up there”, Kuroo said, lifting a large box out of the car. “Just follow Bokuto, he’s already there.”

When Kenma looked around Bokuto was already on top of the hill, excitedly waving with both arms.

They all followed him, Kuroo carrying some mystery content in the box. When they had reached Bokuto a small lake was revealed behind the hill, which gave Kenma still no hint about what they planned on doing.

“Let’s get this started! I checked and there are no people around so it should be fine”, Bokuto said. “Should be film this?”

“No thanks. “ Akaashi replied immediately. “Besides, is this even legal?”

Kenma’s eyes widened. What did they plan on doing?

“No way, we aren’t leaving any permanent damage after all.” Kuroo explained.

He opened the boy and handed all of them a pair of gloves. Kenma had already surrendered and put them on without asking questions. When Kuroo lifted a large bottle with brown glass, which looked exactly like the ones they used to store all sorts of chemicals, out of the box he started to understand.

“Don’t tell me that is what I think it is.”

Kuroo grinned. “That depends on what you think this is.”

“Is that sodium? Did we drive all this way here to throw sodium in a lake?”

“You can bet we did!” Bokuto said. He sounded so proud, as if they were executing his well thought-out plan. “Let’s start off with one large piece?”

Kuroo nodded. He opened the bottle and took the sodium out of the liquid paraffin in which it was stored. It was a huge lump with a metal shine to it. They had even brought a plate to put it on in order to cut it into pieces. These precautions were made because sodium is highly reactive especially when it comes into contact with water, which also explained why they had to wear gloves. The sweat on their hands was enough to start a reaction.

Kuroo generously cut it in half and handed one of them to Bokuto. “Would you do us the honour of throwing in the first one?”

Even though Kenma wasn’t sure if this was such a good idea, he couldn’t deny that he was curious as well. He had only seen this in videos.

Bokuto made sure that nobody was standing around the pond one last time and then he threw the lump, accompanied by some loud shouting, right in the middle of it.  As soon as it came into contact with the water it made a loud bang and burst into a fountain of water and sodium. The sodium split into smaller parts and a chain reaction happened, triggering multiple smaller explosions.

Bokuto and Kuroo were both laughing so much they were tearing up and Kenma couldn’t help but to smile as well. Even Akaashi was staring at the pond with wide eyes and Kenma had to admit, that was way better than he had expected it to be.

Kenma _had_ to send Shouyou a picture on snapchat, he knew that he’d love it as well. “Can one of you throw one at the count of three so I can take a picture?”

Kuroo was so kind and helped him. It took them a few tries but in the end Kenma got a nice shot.

“Ohhh, who are you texting?” Bokuto tried to peek on his phone but Kenma quickly pulled it away.

“A friend, why?” He knew exactly what Bokuto wanted to imply with his question but Kenma paid it no mind.

“Kenma, you’re no fun”, Bokuto sulked because of his dry response but it was only of short duration.

They took turns throwing smaller bits of sodium in the pond until they had almost used it up. For the last one they split it in four parts and threw them all in at the same time.

“Now what?” Akaashi asked after they had watched the last explosions fade out. 

“We could stay here and work together on the lab stuff, or would you rather go home so you can work with Konoha?” Kuroo asked.

Akaashi shrugged. “I already told him that I don’t have time today because we came here, so we might as well work on it right now.”

They unpacked their things and spread everything out on the mat that they were sitting on. It was less comfortable compared to a desk but they were still having fun. Kuroo and Akaashi were constantly trying to coax some information out of Bokuto but he refused to tell them anything. He did help them though when they were stuck at a problem.

“Let’s take a break, we’re almost done”, Kuroo finally said. He rolled on his back and sighed in relief. “We should come here every day, I almost forgot how nice it is.”

They were all lying there for a few minutes, enjoying the silence.

“Would you mind if I played a game on my phone?” Kenma asked after a while. He wasn’t sure if that would come off as rude so he decided to ask first.

“Nah, go ahead”, Bokuto said and shrugged.

Kenma nodded. He didn’t come far though, according to his phone he had neither any reception or any internet connection at all. With a sigh he got up. “No reception, I’ll see if it works better at down by the car.”

Kenma carefully walked the hill down, the last thing he wanted to do was to slip and fall down with his phone in his hand.

“Is it better?” Kuroo shouted.

It took Kenma  a bit to realize that he couldn’t see him shake his head so he shouted back. “No, still nothing!”

Maybe if he walked around those trees? It was worth a try. Kenma kept his eyes focused on the screen to immediately stop in his tracks if he would be able to get a signal.

He had already passed the trees but still nothing, so he followed the border between the trees and the meadow. What Kenma could not recall was following a path that him deeper in woods but when he looked up he suddenly found himself somewhere completely else.

He was surrounded by trees. It wasn’t a thick forest so he had to be at its border. Kenma didn’t panic, he only had to follow the small path back to the meadow. Even so, he finally had a signal along with an internet connection as well. He assumed that there was a radio mast installed somewhere nearby, therefore he sat down on a tree stump and started to play.

Kenma didn’t pay that much attention to his surroundings. When he concentrated on a game he was always focused he didn’t notice how much time had passed. Only when he glanced at the time display at the corner of his phone did he realize how long he had been here. It had almost been an hour.

Kenma almost jumped up from the tree stump. He could feel his heart rate increase and his palms getting sweaty at the thought of going back. He could already imagine the annoyed looks they’d give him while they had been waiting for his return the entire time. He was basically the stranger whom they had taken along and he was only causing problems.

He was walking back when he heard someone shout his name. It sounded far away, outside the forest. Kenma ran along the path all the way back until he was standing in the meadow again, panting heavily. He put his hands on his knees to support himself while he watched Kuroo in the distance.

“Kenma!” he shouted once again even though he could already see him. Kenma didn’t have the energy to shout back but he didn’t seem angry. The closer he got the more obvious was the relief in his expression.

“Kenma. I finally found you.” Kuroo was breathing heavily as well. Had he been running?

“I found a spot where I got a signal so I played and lost track of time. I didn’t want to cause you any trouble. I’m sorry.” Kenma said, biting the inside of his cheek. He couldn’t look Kuroo in the eye. He didn’t want to see him roll his eyes or give him a cold stare.

He waited for that annoyed tongue clicking or exasperated sigh but they never came. Instead, Kuroo laid one hand on his head and ruffled his hair. “I’m glad you’re fine. I went to pick you up and when I couldn’t see you I thought you were a few meters away from the car. When I couldn’t find you around the trees I imagined you wandered off somewhere into the woods. What if something had happened?” he asked while they were walking back.

“Why didn’t you call me?” Kenma asked, feeling guilty for making him worry.

“There is no reception here, remember?”

“Oh...”

“You better not do that again or I’ll have to hold your hand the entire time like they do with little kids to keep them from running away”, Kuroo said with a grin.

“What? There’s no need for that, thank you very much.” Kenma knew that he was only teasing him but he couldn’t help picturing them holding hands for a second.

“I changed my mind, let’s try this out right now before you get lost again.” Kuroo aimed for Kenma’s hands but he quickly pulled them away.

“Stop that, I’m not holding hands with you!” He quickly put his hands in the pockets of his jacket before Kuroo could get a hold of them.

“Hey, that’s not playing fair.” Kuroo tried to pry them out of his pockets but Kenma turned away. Then he gave up and wrapped both of his arms around him. “Fine, then I’ll do this instead.”

“You’re a stubborn idiot, has anyone ever told you that?” Kenma wasn’t mad. It rather took all of his willpower to keep him from smiling.

“More often than you think.”

Kenma wanted to resume walking but as it turned out it wasn’t that easy to walk with someone taller than you half hugging you, half putting their entire weight on you. He tumbled for a second but the only thing he could grab as a support where Kuroo’s arms and the next moment he fell forward, pulling Kuroo with him to the ground.

Kenma closed his eyes in shock. When he opened them again he was staring right up at the sky. He groaned and sat up, Kuroo lying right next to him. He glanced over to him, still a bit dumbfounded about what had happened. At first Kuroo was only looking at him, just as perplexed. Then he started laughing and it was contagious. Kenma felt the corners of his mouth rise and the next second he was laughing along with Kuroo. They were both sitting on the ground, covered in dirt, probably bruised as well, and they were laughing until they were short of breath again.

“Are you alright?” Kuroo asked after they calmed down again.

Kenma nodded. “I’m good, just a few bruises.”

They both got up, brushing their clothes off. Kenma sighed when he saw the grass stains on his elbows because he had no idea how to get them out of his sweater. 

 

When they arrived at the car Bokuto and Akaashi were still sitting on top of the hill, with their backs to them. At first Kuroo wanted to shout something to announce their arrival but at a second glance he stopped himself. Akaashi was resting his head on Bokuto’s shoulder, who had one arm wrapped around his waist.

“Let’s give them a few minutes, they don’t get much alone time at the apartment. They don’t complain about it but I’m sure they are bothered by it.” Kuroo said. He gave them a thoughtful look. “Akaashi is saving money to move out of his parents house but renting an apartment isn’t cheap. You must know, while most of us moved here because of the university, Akaashi has grown up in this town so he’s still living with his parents. They don’t want to pay rent for an apartment when he has a place to stay anyways, which makes sense. He’s fine with it but I think at some point you get tired of living with your parents, but our apartment isn’t a quiet place to escape to either.”

Kuroo was starting to ramble while Kenma was still watching them. Sometimes he wondered if he’d ever end up like this, sitting on top of a hill, arms wrapped around someone else and enjoying the peaceful scenery. He wasn’t sure if the person he’d be comfortable enough to do this with even existed. Sometimes it was hard for him to grasp how other people could trust their partner that much. He could never to that. The thought alone made his throat tighten.

They stood there for a while, Kuroo chatting and Kenma deep in thoughts. This ended rather abruptly when Bokuto pulled Akaashi on his lap.

“Get a room already, you two!” Kuroo interrupted before things could advance any further.

“We wouldn’t need a room if someone hadn’t interrupted us right now!” Bokuto shouted back but he and Akaashi both got up nevertheless.

Kuroo and Kenma helped pack up all their things as well and within fifteen minutes they were back on the road. It was already starting to get chilly outside and the sun would set soon so it was good that they were on their way home. Kenma didn’t even realize how much time had passed until he looked at his phone to check if Shouyou had responded yet.

This time Akaashi was sitting in the front because Bokuto had insisted, so Kuroo complied and wedged himself in between Kenma and the car door. They were all quiet during the drive, being somewhat exhausted. It had been a long day. Kuroo didn’t talk much either, he pressed his head against the window of the car and was once again asleep. How could someone need that much sleep? But Kenma himself had to suppress a yawn a few minutes later. He could also tell that he was asleep by the way Kuroo put his full weight on Kenma. They had to sit shoulder on shoulder because of the little space they had and during every corner he’d lean right on him but Kenma let him sleep. It wasn’t that bad. During one particularly sharp turn Kuroo leaned on Kenma again, but this time he shifted uncomfortably and then rested his head on Kenma’s shoulder instead.

Kenma flinched. It took all his willpower to keep himself from trembling. He wasn’t used to people invading his personal space. Kuroo had hugged him today, but that was something completely different. This felt more intimate, he could even feel Kuroo’s warm breath on his shoulder. Kenma tried to calm himself down before his anxiety started to overwhelm him. It always built up quickly in situations where his tolerance level had already been tested the entire day. He took a few deep breaths. They would arrive in a second. He was doing good. This was nothing out of the ordinary. Just another person resting on his shoulder. No reason to freak out. They could arrive every second.

It didn’t take long for Bokuto to catch onto this.

“Now look at that. He’s sound asleep isn’t he?” he asked Kenma.

He shrugged. He had no way of telling but he welcomed the distraction.

“Then let’s draw a dick on his face!”

Kenma looked at him with big eyes. What Bokuto didn’t know was that half of his baffled expression was due to the fact that he was still struggling to keep his composure.

“Don’t worry, I only said that to make sure that he is sleeping,” Bokuto assured him.  “Now let’s draw a dick on his face for real.”

“What? You can’t, he’ll think it was me”, Kenma said. He was the one sitting right next to Kuroo after all.

“He’d never think that it was you, you’re not the type of person that would do something like that. I on the other hand have some revenge to take on him. He wrote ‘Hoot Hoot!’ on my forehead and drew some Harry Potter glasses on me while I was asleep once”, Bokuto said. “Akaashi, hand me a felt pen. Preferably a water proof one.”

 _‘This is a bad idea, we shouldn’t be doing this.’_ Kenma wasn’t sure how Bokuto was going to draw something on Kuroo’s face while driving but he hoped it didn’t involve steering with his feet.

Akaashi rummaged through a bag until he found a pen but what Bokuto said next made Kenma panic even more than before. “Akaashi, take the steering wheel while I draw on his face. Just make sure that I don’t run into a tree.”

Akaashi opened his mouth to protest but he decided against it. Once Bokuto had an idea he wasn’t easily convinced to stop so he complied and made sure that they wouldn’t die instead.

It was a quick process. Bokuto leaned back, the felt pen already opened and quickly scribbled on Kuroo’s face. Kenma didn’t see what he was drawing because he couldn’t tilt his head too much without waking Kuroo up.

“A true masterpiece”, Bokuto said after he was finished and gave it a critical look.

“Great, now can you please face front again and put your hands on the steering wheel!” Akaashi interrupted.

Kenma in the meantime used his phone’s camera to take a good look at Kuroo’s face.  Bokuto had taken the liberty of drawing a dick on Kuroo’s cheek, accompanied by a very uneven moustache. Kenma used that opportunity to take a picture, this was something that needed to be captured. He had calmed down again. This had taken his mind right off the anxious thoughts he had had.

“We’re almost here. Kenma, we can drop you off at your place if you give us directions”, Bokuto said.

Kenma was very thankful that he didn’t have to walk all the way back home. It was only ten minutes away from uni but he was tired. It was a long and eventful day that had strained his nerves.

They did have to wake Kuroo up in order for Kenma to get out of the car but he didn’t notice a thing. Maybe he was still drowsy because just based on Bokuto’s laughter he should’ve been able to tell that something was off.

Kenma quickly thanked them for bringing him home and for taking him with them in the first place. On his way home he rubbed his shoulder, it felt like he had a very small pressure sore at the place where Kuroo’s head had rested. Weird.

The first thing he did when he got home was eating dinner. Then he called Shouyou. Usually he’d go to Lev’s place but he needed to talk to his best friend. There was nobody that made his anxiety disappear like him.

“Kenmaaaaa!! Where those explosions on the pictures you send me?” Shouyou immediately asked.

Kenma smiled. He could imagine him on the other side of the line, with sparkling eyes and an excited expression.

“Yeah, we created those with some chemical we threw into the lake”, Kenma explained.

“How does that work? Can we do that some time as well?”

Kenma started to explain the process behind the sodium. He loved Shouyou for that. If he had something to tell, he listened. And if he needed someone to take his mind off then Shouyou immediately understood and always had a good story to make him feel a bit more at ease. He was always there for him.

They were talking for almost two hours while Kenma told him everything that had been going on lately. It was so good to get this out of his system. Then Shouyou told him about his recent events. It didn’t matter what he was talking about, he always spoke with such an enthusiasm that Kenma was immediately drawn in.

 

The next morning Kenma couldn’t wait for Kuroo to finally arrive at the lab. His cheek was red and sore, just like the area above his lips.

“Kenma, what a good morning it is. Care to explain what this is?” He didn’t look like he had a fun time rubbing the felt pen off his face.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about? That’s just your face, there’s nothing about it that I could do, as much as I wanted to”, Kenma said, trying to keep his composure. “But if you’re referring to this”, he unlocked his phone where he had set the background to the picture of Kuroo he had taken the day before”, then honestly, it was a major improvement. I don’t know why you removed Bokuto’s masterpiece?”

“You took a picture? Why are you doing this to me?” Kuroo sighed in defeat and started unpacking. “And why is Bokuto not here yet, I just need to kill him very quickly. I mean, thank him for his artistic streak.”

Bokuto’s life was spared after all, due to the fact that there were other people around as well.

Kenma was just about to look something up in the instructions when he noticed some foreign sheets mixed in. They had physical formulas on them that he was sure they wouldn’t need in this lab. Why did Kuroo have those with him?

“I saw some physics sheets in your lab journal today. Are you studying for some other exam?” Kenma asked him when they were sitting at their usual cramming spot.

“Yeah, physical chemistry two. The exam is on next week’s Friday”, Kuroo replied quickly.

Kenma gave the sheets a suspicious look. “Why are you taking it right now during the lab? It’s only distracting you.”

“It’s not like I chose to, _I have to_ is a better way to put it.”

“Who forces you to take exams?” Kenma was confused.

“I get a small grant for university students with low income to help support myself from the university itself, of course not comparable to your scholarship. But nevertheless I depend on it and in order to still receive that I need pass a certain amount of exams each semester and this one is still missing. I’ve got no choice. Tsukki was usually helping me but he’s not here and physics was never my strength. So after finishing the lab and all the preparations I come home and get to study some more. This is why I’m always so tired in case you were wondering”, Kuroo ended bitterly.

“Oh.” Kenma wasn’t sure how to respond. But he did know a way to help. “I might be able to help you if you want to?”

“And how are you going to do that? Take the exam for me instead?”

“I’ve already passed that one, so I might be able to explain everything to you.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3c
> 
> thank you so much for all of your sweet messages, they are so motivating to keep this going!! <3


	3. Fragments of a great collide

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I made a playlist of songs that I listened to while I was writing to go with this chapter, you can listen to it [here](http://8tracks.com/freckleder/a-lovely-mess)

_"Chemical reaction: A process in which one or more reactants are changed into one or more new products."_

 

It was Friday evening. Kenma had survived the second week of his lab. ‘ _Halftime, finally’,_ he thought to himself. Usually he’d be starting the weekend off with a relaxing gaming session, instead he was hectically running around his room and cleaning everything up.

He had agreed for Kuroo to come over to study the next day, so he needed to get rid of the mess that was his apartment. You could immediately tell, folding clothes and putting them back in his closet was not one of his favourite things to do. Kenma had a huge pile propped up on his desk chair. During the day he would take it and move it to the bed and in the evening he would put everything back on the chair. Some of them were freshly washed but since they’ve lain around in the pile they were all crinkly and needed to be ironed again. He quickly divided the pile into those that could still be worn and the others that he had to iron again.

Afterwards he stored a few jackets in the closet as well. He had a few clothes hooks on his door but he had put so many jackets and hoodies on them that you couldn’t open the door completely anymore.

Right when he was busy organising the clutter that always formed on his desk someone knocked on his door. He jumped around, startled. Kuroo couldn’t already be here, could he? It took him a second to realize that it was in fact still Friday and Kenma sighed with relieve. Why did he always give himself heart attacks?

He looked outside through the door viewer and all he could see was an upper body and a pair of legs. Kenma just opened the door, he didn’t even have to ask who was standing outside. Initially Lev had suggested that they come up with a special rhythm for knocking on the door as a pass code, but Kenma dismissed the idea. People usually used the doorbell, so he could guess that it had to be Lev most of the time.

“Hey! What’s going on here? I’ve never seen this place that clean before”, Lev greeted him.

“It looks like this most of the time, but once in a while stuff starts accumulating and it looks a tiny bit chaotic. It’s not as bad”, Kenma immediately defended himself. Seriously, who was in the mood for cleaning up the entire apartment when they had had a busy day at the lab?

“What are you cleaning up for?” Lev asked while he helped himself to a bowl of cereal.

“Nothing in particular. Kuroo is coming over tomorrow and I’m helping him study because he’s taking the Physical Chemistry II exam on Friday”, Kenma explained. He tried to stuff all the sheets he had lying around in a file but it ended up being so full that he couldn’t even close it anymore. Maybe he should try splitting the stack in two parts instead.

Lev crinkled his nose in disgust. “Ugh, I still remember studying like crazy for that exam. The theoretical part wasn’t that difficult but to solve the calculations you had to be a PhD candidate for physics.”

Kenma remembered the all-nighters they had pulled together with Yamaguchi as well. They had solved enough calculations for one lifetime during those days. He didn’t want to imagine how hard it had been on Kuroo to study for an exam like that with a lab going on at the same time. Maybe that was why he had offered to help. And because they were lab partners. Kenma couldn’t deny that he felt a certain amount of solidarity towards Kuroo.

“Should I help you dust off the shelves?” Lev offered.

Kenma nodded thankfully. He wasn’t worried about Kuroo inspecting the top of the shelves and then being appalled by the amount of dust that had collected, it was rather that Lev could dust them off easily while he had to risk breaking his neck while balancing on a chair.

But Lev grabbed Kenma under his arms and lifted him off the ground instead.

“Wait! What are you doing? Lev, put me down again!” Kenma tried to kick him in the shin but it was futile.

“Let’s try dusting the shelves off like this”, he grinned.

Kenma tried to pry his hands open. “I’m too heavy, you can’t carry me for that long.”

“Isn’t this fun? Look”, Lev said instead and spun around in a circle.

“If you keep this going I’ll throw up in your face”, Kenma replied dryly, which was what convinced Lev to put him down again. “And I’m not _that_ short.” He added while hitting Lev lightly with the dust rag.

Kenma had grown quite a few centimetres in his last year of high school. He was only barely shorter than the average person but his scrawny appearance made him look lanky. On the other hand he wasn’t one to talk compared to Lev who was inhumanely tall.

They cleaned up for ten more minutes before they lost their motivation and inevitably ended up in front of Kenma’s play station. His body had gotten used to being on his feet the whole day so his back wasn’t killing him anymore, but the lab still took its toll.

Later on Lev went back to his apartment to see if he could find some of his old notes regarding the exam. Kenma doubted that anything would be useful since Lev barely took any notes and he was the only one that could make some sense of the ones that he did take. He was always writing all over the place, only using a few keywords and connecting phrases with arrows. Nevertheless Kenma appreciated the effort and who knew, maybe he’d manage to find something useful in his sea of arrows and scribbles.

Kenma was dead beat so he eventually postponed any cleaning up he still wanted to do for the next day. After a good night’s sleep he’d feel less exhausted for sure. _‘And hopefully less nervous’,_ he added in his mind.

 

Kenma woke up abruptly, drenched in sweat. He could see the rays of sunshine through the shutters. He hadn’t overslept, had he? His hand fumbled around his nightstand, searching for his phone. 7am. Kenma stared at the bright screen while his eyes adjusted to the light. He should go back to sleep.

Kenma closed his eyes again but he couldn’t fall asleep again. He tossed around in his bed in half-sleep for a while until he gave up. Here was his perfect chance to catch up on some sleep but his body was having none of it. With a frustrated sigh he pulled the blanket away and got out of his bed. A few strands of hair were sticking to his damp neck. A shower would probably do him some good right now.

Refreshed after a quick shower and breakfast he inspected his room. When you entered from the small entrance you could see his bed on the right side, with a shelf and his TV in front of it.

Along the left side was the kitchen which had already been in here when he moved in. There had only been space for a small couch and a coffee table because Kenma had insisted on a large desk. It was important that the desk was exactly how he wanted it to be, this was here he spent most of his time after all.

All in all not the ideal conditions to study since he didn’t have proper space but in comparison to Kuroo’s apartment with four other people it didn’t lead up to much of a discussion which of their places was more suited.

Kenma couldn’t help being anxious. He didn’t have people over all too often except for Lev, Shouyou and Yamaguchi, usually you’d meet with people for coffee somewhere around the campus. His room wasn’t anything out of the ordinary but when you turned around you could see that the wall was adorned with many wallpapers of Kenma’s favourite video games. He purposely hung them on that wall so when people just had a quick peek in his apartment they couldn’t see them.

He personally loved his wallpapers but he was self-conscious of them when other people saw them. He knew that he couldn’t hang them in his apartment when he was a grown-up, so he had decided to do it now when nobody expected his crappy apartment to look professional. Even so he struggled with the urge to take them all down. He could already imagine Kuroo eyeing them up and down with raised eyebrows and then turning to Kenma and giving him the same condescending look. He knew that look all too well, destroying the image he had tried to create for the past two weeks within seconds.

He should cancel the plan but he had promised Kuroo to help. He couldn’t let him down, not after he had been so kind and friendly to him. Kenma knew that he was difficult sometimes but he couldn’t help it. If it would be that easy to stop then he’d have done that a long time ago. He wondered if he was even able to help at all. What if he had forgotten everything and only wasted Kuroo’s time?

Kenma sighed. He had once more managed to make himself feel even more insecure than he already was. Well done. He sorted through Lev’s notes to see if he could find something useful and to distract himself a bit. _‘Maybe I should’ve bought some chips? Or some kind of pastry?’_   No, he was probably fine. Kuroo would be here in an hour so he should eat something himself.

 

Kenma’s phone rang and he nearly jumped off his seat. Kuroo would be here in ten minutes if he was on time.

  _Incoming call from ‘Kuroo Lab’_

Kenma picked up with shaky hands. Maybe Kuroo wanted to cancel the plan after all.

“Y-yes?”

“Hey! It seems like I’ve run into a small problem.” Kuroo sounded concerned.

 _‘Now here comes the part where he comes up with a classic excuse about why he miraculously can’t come over’,_ Kenma thought bitterly. He couldn’t deny that he was disappointed.

Kuroo hesitated for a second. “This is a bit embarrassing but I got lost on my way here. I thought I would remember it from that one time we took you home but I don’t.”

“Oh...I’ll come and pick you up, where are you right now?” Kenma said, trying to hide the relief in his voice.

“There’s a small cinema here. It’s empty and deserted which is giving me the creeps, if that helps.”

“I know where that is. Stay put and I’ll be here in two minutes.”

Kenma put on his shoes and made sure he had his keys with him. The cinema Kuroo was talking about was just around the corner. It was relatively old and had a long, eerie entrance which actually looked worse during the day because they kept the light switched off. He always hurried past it because it gave him goose bumps.

When he got there he didn’t see Kuroo at first. He was kneeling on the ground, petting a cat.

“Hi! So I assume you met M- the cat?” Kenma said.

“Hey! I was in good company until you came to pick me up.” Kuroo look up at Kenma and grinned. “So this cat is always here?”

Kenma nodded. “I think it belongs to the cinema owner. And be careful, you shouldn’t let it sit on your lap.” He motioned to the cat which was obviously trying to wedge its head underneath Kuroo’s arm. He tried to catch it but he was too slow. The cat purred while it made itself comfortable on his lap.

“Good luck getting the cat off now.” Kenma tried to hold back a grin.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Why don’t you try to lift it off?”

Kuroo put his hands around the cat, carefully trying to pick it up but he immediately let go. The cat dug its claws through his pants and refused to let go.

“Heh, I warned you”, Kenma said.

It took them about ten minutes and a lot of persuasion the get the cat off Kuroo again. Kenma pretended to hold some food but of course the cat didn’t catch on. He had to get some actual cat treats from the grocery store around the corner.

“Thank god! This cat is like a siren. It lures people into the creepy cinema and then doesn’t let them go anymore.” Kuroo brushed his pants off after finally getting up again. “So what was the cats name again? You wanted to say it but you didn’t finish the sentence?”

“It’s not really its name, I picked it because I see it almost every day when I go home.” Kenma had his hands in his pockets and looked away.

“Come on, tell me.”

“It’s Meowth”, Kenma mumbled.

“Like the pokémon? But that was a black cat just now, right?” Kuroo said.

“I knew you would say that. It’s not like you have to use that name.” Kenma crossed his arms and started walking a bit faster.

“No, I like it. It’s cute. Wait, are you mad?” Kuroo had to hurry to catch up to him.

“No, I’m not. And we’re here.”

“Oh, this building looks familiar now that I’m right in front of it but I wouldn’t have found it on my own”, Kuroo mentioned while Kenma slid the key in the lock to open the door.

Kenma’s apartment was on the third floor and he could feel his heart racing the closer they got. Or maybe it was just because he was extremely nonathletic and climbing the stairs always left him out of breath. The building was old so it didn’t have an elevator.

When they arrived Kuroo was panting as well – to Kenma’s relief – and they both needed a second to catch their breath.

Kenma let them in and got both of them a glass of water. “I don’t have a coat rack, just put your jacket on the bed or my desk.”

Kuroo put his bag next to Kenma’s desk and took the glass of water thankfully. Spinning the glass around in his hand he gave Kenma’s room an observant glance and said, “Your room is nice. Nerdy, but somehow not much different from what I expected.” He pointed to the gigantic wallpaper of the periodic table over Kenma’s desk.

“Oh, is this where you store your games?” Kuroo walked over to the shelf on front of his bed. “Woah, is that a limited edition? We need to play that.”

“Thanks”, Kenma said, now acting bashful. That was not the reaction he had expected. “We can, but I think we should study a bit first.”

Kuroo only seemed to remember now why we had actually come to Kenma’s place. “Right, let’s get this over with.”

“Before we start, would you like some coffee?”

Kuroo nodded. “That would be great.”

“Good, then give me a moment.” He typed something in his phone. “Take one of the kitchen chairs and put your stuff on the desk, I’ll be back in two minutes. Don’t set anything on fire.”

Kenma didn’t have a coffee maker. He drank coffee when people offered it because he couldn’t say no but he would never feel like having a cup of coffee on his own accord. Lev owned a coffee maker though so he was on his way downstairs to get some coffee. They always did this. Kenma had just texted him to start filling a pot because he had already figured that Kuroo would prefer some coffee over energy drinks.

The door was left ajar for Kenma to enter and he could hear the coffee maker bubbling and rattling.

“Almost done!” Lev shouted while Kenma waited in the entrance. “There you go.”

“Thanks, Lev. I’ll treat you to something in exchange.” Kenma took the pot of coffee. He had already figured out how to carry it without burning his fingers.

“Yay, thanks! Then have fun studying, just bring the pot back to me whenever.”

Kenma nodded thankfully and returned back to his own apartment. Kuroo was inspecting his desk when he came back. He had taken one of the kitchen chairs and moved Kenma’s desk chair aside. His desk was large enough for both of them to comfortably work on.

“Where on earth did you just get that coffee from? Did you go to a café?” Kuroo asked wide-eyed while Kenma poured him a cup. He already remembered how Kuroo liked his coffee.

“No, a friend is living one floor below me so I always ask him to make me some coffee for visitors”, Kenma explained. “Now while that cools off show me the parts you’re struggling with.”

“Wait a second, you have to go downstairs each time you get a cup of coffee?” Kuroo asked in genuine confusion.

Kenma cleared his throat. This was going to be uncomfortable. “To be completely honest with you, I don’t like coffee. You, much like everyone else, offered me coffee and I didn’t want to refuse your friendly gesture.”

“What? Why didn’t you say something? I’m not going to be offended because you don’t like coffee!”

“I’m sorry. I should’ve told you from the start but it’s just coffee, no big deal.” Kenma insisted.

Kuroo looked at him with a frown. “You shouldn’t go along with things that you don’t want to just because it might make the other person feel troubled. That’s a bad habit. You should work on it.”  

Kenma nodded. He knew that he could be a pushover because he didn’t want to speak up. This was the first time someone had told him to stop that, for his own sake.

Kuroo had a binder with him which contained all of his notes. He roamed through it until he had found what he was looking for.

“This entire chapter is a mystery to me”, he pointed to his notes. “Every single calculation works in a different way. Sometimes you can apply formulas but if the data you start with changes only a little bit you can’t use them anymore. It doesn’t follow any logical order, I tried it over and over again.”

Kenma took the binder and had a look for himself. He had a vague idea which chapter Kuroo was talking about. He had to admit, it had been the chapter he had struggled the most with as well. That didn’t mean he was going to give up, together they could come up with some solutions.

“Then let’s start going through them one by one, maybe we’ll figure out the system behind it. I’ll have a quick look in my own notes, maybe we can find something useful”, Kenma said.

They first tried to go through each calculation together, but that didn’t work out as well as they both expected. Every time they got stuck their ways to solve the problem varied and they couldn’t agree on one. They changed strategies pretty quickly. Both of them did their own math and after they were done they compared the results which proved to be a much more effective plan.

 The professor had been kind enough to provide solutions for the calculations on his website but he didn’t show the calculation process. All they had as a guide line were the suggestions on the facebook group their course had, and since most of them were done by their fellow students a lot of them were wrong or only partially available.

Kuroo had finished his second cup of coffee when they decided to take a break.

“Ugh, I’m so done with this. Do I look like a physicist?” Kuroo leaned back in his chair and sighed.

“You’re doing well, don’t be so hard on yourself. We made some process right now.”  Kenma had picked up a lot of phrases from Shouyou because he had trouble showing sympathy. He was usually not one to be full of enthusiasm but he had the feeling that Kuroo could use some uplifting words. “We could play some video games if you’re up for that?”

“Sure! By the way, is that a Wii?” Kuroo asked.

Kenma nodded. “I bought a used one on ebay because it’s fun to play with friends. We could too, but of course only if you want to?”

“Do you have Mario Kart?”

“Yes, but that is going to end badly. I have other ones too, let’s play one of these.” After a certain incident that had almost ended with a Wii remote being stuck in his wall he became reluctant to play that game.

“What? You can handle Bioshock but not Mario Kart?” Kuroo gave him a challenging grin.

He knew better than to fall for Kuroo’s provocations. He could imagine that this was exactly what would work on Bokuto though. “That’s right. Now choose something else”, Kenma replied calmly.

“Really?” Kuroo said with overexaggerated disappointment. “Can’t you make an exception just for me? Think of how diligently we’ve been studying. Shouldn’t I be to one to choose the game?”

So he was changing his tactic now. “I have a few other Wii games, why does it have to be Mario Kart?”

“Because.”  Kuroo replied. “How about I make you a deal. We play one time and if you don’t like it I’ll pick another game.”

Kenma hated to be a pushover but he had the feeling that Kuroo wouldn’t stop until they played at least one race. “Fine, have it your way then. “

Kuroo started the game and politely declined the offer to be player one, because he “doesn’t need that kind of advantage”. Kenma was sure that he was going to need that advantage though, but he didn’t say anything. To make it fair he chose the standard setting for the car as well and they let the randomizer pick a route.

They had agreed to do a few races as practice so Kuroo could get familiar with the control. He got better every lap but Kenma won five consecutive races.

He had unlocked all achievements in one night with Shouyou, they had played this game until they knew every route inside out. Nevertheless he knew that Kuroo would soon be fed up if he couldn’t beat him. Kenma watched him, with his brows knitted together he stared at the screen, leaning left and right to follow the motions of the Wii controller. Kenma couldn’t help but smile at that. Kuroo always acted to cool but he was just as much of a huge dork as the rest of them.

“Heh, I finally got you”, he grinned when Kenma fell into the water right before the finish line.

“Yeah, this route is not exactly my strength”, Kenma lied.

He didn’t want Kuroo to become suspicious so he won once before become a close second again. Kuroo didn’t miss the slight twitch on his face when he teased him about winning again. Usually Kenma was so good about hiding his emotions but somehow a small smile had crept on his face.

“Wait a second. You beat my ass the last time we played this route, how come you mysteriously drove into that plant this time?” Kuroo asked.

“I accidently looked over at your side instead of mine. Happens way too often, am I right?” Kenma laughed nervously.

Kuroo raised his eyebrows in disbelief. “I know that you’re losing on purpose. Am I really playing that badly?” He laughed.

“No, I didn’t mean it that way. I was just worried that you might get frustrated if you never win”, Kenma hurried to say. He hadn’t intended to make it sound like Kuroo was playing awful, which he wasn’t.

“Don’t worry about me, I can handle a little defeat. Just wait, next time I’m the one that’s going to kick _your_ ass instead”, he grinned.

Kenma was relieved that Kuroo didn’t take it the wrong way but he still didn’t manage to score a win against him.

 

It was already dark outside and a busy silence was in the air, the only noises the scribbles of their pens and the occasional frustrated sigh or tongue clicking. They had worked through a lot of problems, Kenma was glad the he proved to be useful as well.

A sudden loud vibration noise broke the silence and made both of them jump. Kuroo was getting a call.

He picked up and Kenma knew even without reading who the caller was that it had to be Bokuto. He could hear his loud voice ringing through the speaker.

“Ohohoh?”

Kenma still couldn’t believe that Kuroo was actually answering Bokuto’s calls like this. Or the “Ohoho!” he always received in return.

“Bokuto, I told you that I’m at Kenma’s place. I can’t.” Kuroo pointed to his phone and then made a vague gesture of emphasize to indicate that he was going to end the call soon.

“That’s not the issue. Of course he would, but we are getting work done.” Kuroo argued, followed by a long pause.

“Fine, I’ll talk to him and I’ll call you back in a second.” He placed his phone back on the desk and turned to Kenma. “Bokuto just told me that he found instructions to build armour out of cardboard boxes and he wants to try it out. I don’t think it’s going to work but I don’t know if it’s just me but seeing your lab assistant making a fool out of himself in cardboard boxes does sound like something you don’t want to miss. It’s not going to work out and we’re probably going for a drink somewhere, eventually. We have been studying so diligently, I think we can call it a day, right?”

“Alright, let’s do that. We’ve been sitting here for hours.” Kenma had to hold back a grin. Kuroo might act like Bokuto’s idea was ridiculous but Kenma could see the excitement in his eyes. When it came to stupid ideas he was just as eager to try them out as Bokuto.

Even though it was already dark outside the streets were busier than usual. It was Saturday so a lot of people were going clubbing.

Kenma had quickly thrown a hoodie on and he was glad that he did so, a cold wind rippled through the streets. Kuroo was leading the way and they were walking quietly for a while, letting their exhausted minds rest.

Kuroo was eventually the one who broke the silence. “Thanks for today. You were a big help.”

“No problem, but I didn’t do that much. We worked most of the problems out together”, Kenma shrugged.

“No, I mean it. You explained things calm and simple, and you sacrificed almost an entire day for that. You could have been studying for the lab or working on the report instead. In the beginning you were acting so cold, I was a bit worried, but you’re actually pretty amazing.” Kuroo looked over to him while he spoke.

“It’s nothing, really.” Kenma looked away, embarrassed. He wasn’t used to being complimented.

“Are you blushing? I didn’t tell you anything that you don’t know already”, Kuroo said and laughed.

“We could study again! If you want to”, Kenma blurted out, not knowing what else he was supposed to say.

“Sure, why not. We’re almost here, it’s right around the corner.”

Kenma could hear Bokuto even before they had walked around the building. 

He was just carrying a few boxes, with Akaashi standing on the side, giving him a concerned look. He greated them, probably hoping for some support to convince Bokuto to go home, but Kuroo immediately joined him.

Kenma was standing besides Akaashi, watching them. Kenma nervously fumbled with his sleeves while they were both completely quiet. Akaashi never spoke much and they’ve never had a proper conversation except for a few words about the lab. He always seemed so collected and unapproachable, Kenma had no idea how to start a conversation.

“Kenma, please turn your face to me for a second”, Akaashi said calmly.

“Oh s- sorry, what did you just say?” Kenma was so wrapped up in his thoughts of how to start a conversation that he didn’t pay proper attention. It had almost sounded like Akaashi demanded to take a look at his face.

“Turn your head. In my direction”, he said again, still in the same slow manner. He emphasized it by making a rotating motion with his hand.

Kenma wasn’t sure what Akaashi planned on doing but he obliged.

“You have a pen streak on your left cheek.”

“What? Has it been there the whole time?” Kenma immediately covered his cheek, embarrassed. Kuroo hadn’t said a word about that.

“It’s just one small streak, I doubt anyone noticed it”, Akaashi said. Kenma tried to rub it off but he couldn’t exactly look at his own face to see where the streak was. “A bit more to the left. Now up. Wait, let me help you.”

For a second Kenma thought that Akaashi was leaning in to rub it off his face himself, but instead he reached for his phone and held in front of Kenma’s face so he could use it as a mirror. Now this was working a lot better than before.

“Thanks, this helps a lot.” Kenma’s skin got red and irritated but he managed to get it off his face after all.

“You’re welcome. You might also stand a bit closer to the roof, it looks like it might rain soon. We should’ve stayed at home but Bokuto insisted on trying this out right now.” Akaashi moved to the side to show that Kenma should come a bit closer.

“It’s not going to rain! My weather app said it was a 10% chance for light showers so we’re good!” Bokuto shouted while his upper half was already covered in cardboard.

“It’s windy and the sky is pitch black, it could start raining any second.”

“It’s dark outside because it’s at night, that’s the time _after_ the sun sets” Bokuto emphasized. “Also, Akaashi, I can’t move and I need some help putting the armour on my feet. Maybe I should’ve put those on first.”

Akaashi sighed and helped a struggling Bokuto, who almost fell over some of the boxes because he couldn’t see his feet. He knew that he was too stubborn to return back home at this point.

Kenma felt awkwardly left out while everyone else was busy. “Is there anything I could help you with?” he asked Kuroo.

“I’m good, all I need to do is cut a hole for my face in this helmet and then I’m done.”

“Oh, okay then.”

Kenma knew this social situation all too well and he handled it like he always did, by taking out his phone at pretending to do something interesting.

“Actually, you could draw stuff on my armour? To make it look extra awesome?” Kuroo suggested once he noticed that Kenma seemed a bit lost.

“Yes, I could to that”. Kenma had no idea how to draw but he was glad that Kuroo gave him something to do. He assumed the save thing to draw without messing it up were some patterns and swirls he had seen on a lot of armour in video games. Though the word armour was probably an overexaggeration for whatever it was that Bokuto and Kuroo had slapped together. The only thing they had with them was one pair of scissors which they tossed to whoever needed it at the moment and a permanent marker to scribble on the boxes.

“Kuroo, are you done yet?” Bokuto had managed to get his feet through the boxes with Akaashi’s help.

“Give me a second, I still need a sword and shield.” A shield was simply the bottom of a box and the sword was one of the flaps. Kuroo quickly dismantled one more box and then put his armour on. He did it a bit more graceful than Bokuto, at least as elegant as you can be with a cardboard box on your head.

“Alright, the goal is to knock the other person’s helmet off. If you hit the eyes you get minus points”, Kuroo explained.

“You shouldn’t hit your eyes at all, you still need them to see”, Akaashi said in a voice you’d usually have when talking to kids.

“Mine aren’t working properly anyways”, Bokuto grinned and winked at Akaashi who ignored him. Then he turned back to Kuroo.“Ready to go?”

“Please, I was born ready.”

Akaashi acted as the referee to make sure they were both playing fair and then the fight started. Kenma was worried that they’d hurt themselves but he was low-key hoping that Kuroo would win.

“Was it just my imagination or was that a lightning over there?” Kenma had gotten wary after Akaashi’s words but Kuroo and Bokuto seemed too wrapped up in their fight to pay any attention.

The thunder followed almost immediately. “We should really head back.” Akaashi said once again with more emphasize. He turned to Kenma. “Let’s start getting rid of this mess so we can leave right away if it starts pouring down.”

Kenma nodded and they started picking up all the cardboard parts scattered on the floor.

“Nooo, Akaashi! You’re our referee, you need to watch the match”, Bokuto shouted while he was focused on knocking Kuroo’s helmet off.

“I’m sure you can determine the winner on your own. “

It took about one more minute until it started raining. Kenma felt a little droplet on his arm first, then a few more trickled down his face and in a matter of seconds it was pelting down.

“I told you we should’ve gone home earlier”, Akaashi snapped at Bokuto, while trying to free him of his armour.

They stood beneath the roof of the supermarket for a minute but the downpour didn’t stop. On the contrary, it developed into a full-on thunderstorm. Waiting for it to stop seemed useless but none of them wanted to say the obvious: they would eventually have to leave. Also nobody dared to say anything because Akaashi had the biggest frown Kenma had yet seen on his face.

Kuroo coughed uncomfortably. “So...if one of you brought an umbrella with them then this would be the ideal moment to say so.”

 It was silent for a second, and then you could hear how both Kuroo and Bokuto tried their best to stifle their laughter.

Akaashi said nothing but Kenma felt an ominous aura in the air that had nothing to do with the rolling thunder.

“I’m going back now. Kenma, you are welcome to come with me. The apartment of _those two_ ”, he said in an icy voice,” is closer than yours. As for you two, you can do whatever you want but I have Bokuto’s key for the flat.”

Kenma nodded in silence, accepting the offer. Akaashi was scary when he was irritated.

“Akaashi, I’m sorry!! I’ll never not listen to you again. You’re the wisest person I ever met, don’t be mad anymore!!” Bokuto pleaded while they were all marching back.

They were completely soaked after they had taken a few steps out of the protective supermarket roof. Kenma’s biggest worry was his phone, but he had put it all the way down in Kuroo’s backpack just to make sure that it wouldn’t get wet as quickly.

Kenma wasn’t sure if it was because they were half-walking, half-running or because the apartment was close but they arrived at their flat in what felt like less than five minutes.

The entrance was a jumble of shoes, so Kenma tried to carefully put his own ones aside from the rest so he would find them immediately again.

“Here, put your hoodie on here to dry.” Kuroo handed him a hanger.

Kenma had to peel the hoodie from his body, it hadn’t stood a chance against the downpour.

Bokuto peeked around the entrance into what Kenma assumed was the living room. “The coast is clear. Quick. Now.”  He scurried forth, closely followed by Akaashi and Kuroo.

Kenma watched them until he realized that he was supposed to do the same and quickly caught up to Kuroo. Bokuto and Akaashi disappeared into the first door on the right, while Kuroo was heading towards the second one.

Kuroo closed the door behind them as quietly as possible.

“Daichi is going to kill us when he sees the trails we left right now. I’m going to borrow you some of my clothes and we’ll put these up in the bathroom to dry.” Kuroo said while he roamed through his closet. “Take this.” He pressed something in Kenma’s hands. “And this.” More clothes. “That should do it.”

Then he left, probably getting rid of the puddles they had left when they came in.

Kenma was glad for the set of clothes. He changed, already knowing the clothes could be nothing but too large, while he glanced around Kuroo’s room, taking in every detail.

It was a small room. The wall on his right was bright red. Kuroo must have painted it himself, the corners weren’t filled in completely. Next to his bed was a huge pile of magazines. Kenma was not exaggerating, it reached up to his bed and he wondered if Kuroo toppled it over every other day and put it up again or if it stayed that way naturally.

The desk was small but not even half as messy as Kenma’s one. He had a corkboard in front of it but Kenma couldn’t see what was on it. He wasn’t sure if he was allowed to have a look around but he couldn’t resist walking up to the desk. There was a monthly calendar in which Kuroo had written _“Lab”_ in every weekday and _“Work”_ on some of the other days. Kenma smiled at the pictures he had put up. All of them contained Bokuto and he even spotted Yamaguchi with Tsukishima in the background while they attempted to cram an entire pack of mentos in a coke bottle. Akaashi must have taken most of the pictures he figured.

Maybe he should print the one where Bokuto had scribbled on his face and give it to Kuroo for the board. It was still his screensaver. But Kuroo was probably not holding too much onto that moment and Kenma was on the picture as well.

Kenma wanted to explore his room further but he suddenly remembered that the fate of his phone was still unknown. Hopefully Kuroo’s backpack was as waterproof as he had made him believe.

The living room was empty but Kenma walked towards the only open door.

“Do you need any help with that?” he asked while he watched Kuroo trying to hang up four shirts with one hand. “I can already picture you falling face first in the bathtub.”

“Thanks, but I got this. Wait in the living room for me, I’ll be there in a second.” Kuroo replied. He changed tactic and tried to do it with both hands.

“Um, if you say so. Please don’t hurt yourself.” Kenma remembered what he had originally wanted to ask Kuroo. “My phone is still in your backpack.”

Kuroo pointed with one foot at it. “It’s over there. You can take the whole bag with you.”

His phone was fine. The backpack had stayed waterproof, so now Kenma was sitting at the table and distracted himself with it. It was one larger room with kitchen and living room all in one. He yawned shamelessly, it was almost midnight.

Kuroo came back from the bathroom and Kenma wanted to ask about the clothes but he almost choked on his spit. Kuroo must have dried his hair off with a towel because his usually already messy hair was sticking up in every direction, refusing to submit to any laws of gravity.

“You don’t have to say anything, I know. The rain makes is even worse”, Kuroo said in a defeated voice.  “Hungry?”

Only now did Kenma notice that the last time he ate something was lunch almost ten hours ago. He didn’t want to stay any longer though, he could still eat at home and it was late. “I’m good, I think I’ll be going home soon.”

“I’m making scrambled eggs, you have to eat a bit. You must be starving.” Kuroo said. “I’m making some for Akaashi and Bokuto as well, so it won’t be any trouble to add some more.”

The thought of someone else making food for him did sound appealing so he gave in. “Alright, then I’ll have some too.”

Kenma watched him cook for a while, then he busied himself and set the table for everyone. He assumed they were all going to eat together but Akaashi came out to pick up his and Bokuto’s share and then left again.

It was just the two of them. It was awfully quiet for an apartment that Kenma had assumed was always buzzing with noise.

“Here, your plate”, Kuroo said and sat down as well.

“Thanks.” Now that was something Kenma could get used to, someone else doing all the cooking for him. It tasted even better than he had imagined. “How did you do make scrambled eggs taste like something? They are always completely tasteless when I try to make them.”

“That’s because you probably don’t add the secret ingredient”, Kuroo grinned.

“And what is the secret ingredient?”

“A chef never reveals his secrets. You just have to come back here if you want to eat it again.”

Kenma rolled his eyes in response but he didn’t miss the indirect invitation to come over again.

When Kuroo yawned Kenma saw that as his cue to finally get going.

“So...I think I’ll grab my clothes now and leave. It’s already past midnight and we’re both tired.”

“It’s storming outside, you can’t go out now. Stay the night.”

“That’s very nice of you to offer but I really don’t think that that’s a good idea.”

“Didn’t you make an excellent point just now? It’s past midnight and we’re both tired. You can sleep over and go home tomorrow in the morning.”

“I don’t have anything with me, no pyjama, no toothbrush. I can’t stay over like that.”

“I can borrow you clothes. I already did, to be honest. We have a few new toothbrushes and a mattress for guests to sleep on.”

“But I...”

“Don’t be unreasonable. It’s no big deal.”

Kenma admitted defeat. He was still not sure if this was a good idea but it was either this or marching home through the dark while a thunderstorm was raging.

“Here is your toothbrush and I’d also recommend locking the bathroom door if you don’t want people to just walk in. Take your time and I’ll set up your bed meanwhile”, Kuroo said.

Kenma had never been this confused by a bathroom. There were three different types of toothpaste. The huge collection of hair gel must belong to Bokuto. He even spotted a straightener and a curling iron. Above the bathtub was what seemed like an entire wardrobe of wet clothes, Kenma was surprised that all of their clothes even fit on there.

When he came back to Kuroo’s room – the one in the middle, he made sure to remember that – a mattress was already sprawled out for him on the floor.

Kuroo was lying on his bed, the lamp on the bedside table was illuminating the room gently.

“I don’t have an extra set of blankets, I hope you’re fine with one of mine. I changed the bedding of the fluffy one and I’ll sleep with the fleece blanket, I hope that’s good for you”, Kuroo said.

“I’m fine with the fleece blanket, you can have the other one.”

“You’re the guest, you get the warmer blanket and I didn’t change the bedding for nothing. Take it.”

“Thanks”, Kenma mumbled. If Kuroo wouldn’t stop being so nice he was going to start feeling guilty. He put his phone on the desk, too worried that Kuroo might step on it if he’d lay it on the floor. A pair of glasses caught his eye, he didn’t notice those before.

“You need glasses?” he asked.

“They are pretty weak, I don’t really need them but I get a headache if I read for too long without them. They’re still strong enough to be mentioned in my driver’s license, one day I’ll have to pay a fine because I always forget to bring them with me.” Kuroo said with a light-hearted laugh . He never wore them at the lab because you either had to buy special safety glasses to go over them which, frankly said, made you look like an idiot or you could wear them instead of the safety glasses. One time someone forgot to release the pressure of a vessel and acid splashed everywhere. Just small droplets but the burn marks in the safety goggles did convince him that the more of his face was covered the better.

“Oh god”, Kenma said all of a sudden. The mention of Kuroo having the glasses mentioned in his driver’s license made him think of something. “How could there be any possible way that Bokuto is allowed to drive? Does he even have a driver’s license?”

“Oh, about that.”, Kuroo looked away sheepishly. He knew that Kenma would be upset so he hoped that he wouldn’t notice. “He has a driver’s license. Do I look like someone that would sit in a car with someone who can’t drive?”

“Yes, you would”, Kenma said.

“Fair enough. But Bokuto has a license. His protanomaly was only discovered very late and he already had his driver’s license back then. And he never went there to get it changed, they’d take it away from him. But if it makes you feel better, Akaashi was sitting in that car too, he trusts Bokuto with his life.”

“Actually, that does make me feel a bit better. But not by much.” Kenma shook his head. They had made it home safe, but he was glad that he didn’t know about that in the car. He had been too occupied trying to figure out where they were going and what they were doing.  “I don’t have any energy left to worry about all the things that could have happened.”

He made himself comfortable and gave Kuroo the OK to switch the light off.

“Kuroo”, he whispered after a minute. It was weird how just the fact that it was dark made you speak quietly even though you were talking in a normal voice just moments ago.

“Yeah?” Kuroo whispered right back, proving his theory.

“How are we going to handle the lab on Friday? You have to leave for the exam so we have to make sure to work hard and be ahead of schedule during the week.” This had been at the back of his mind for a while now but he had always forgotten to address it.

“Ugh, can we not talk about the lab or the exam. Or university in general. Just for today. Tomorrow we can plan that out but right now I don’t want to deal with this.” Kuroo had been so energetic earlier but now he sounded worn out and exhausted.

Kenma nodded. It took him a second to realize that Kuroo couldn’t see him. “Alright, we can just go over it tomorrow.”

“Thanks.”

Kenma knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep for a while. He listened to Kuroo’s rhythmical breath. When was the last time he slept over at someone’s place? Lev didn’t count, they basically shared apartments. Everything was so new and unfamiliar. The blanket smelled just like Kuroo despite him having changed the bedding.

Kenma could hear the raindrops hitting the tilted window and the occasional thunder. He was about to fall asleep when the noise of someone unlocking the front door almost made him jump. For a second he thought someone was trying to break into his place until he remembered that he wasn’t at home. He tossed from one side to the other while he waited for the person that was roaming around the apartment to be quiet and go to bed.

He didn’t dare to look on his phone and wake Kuroo up so Kenma had no idea how late it was, but he eventually fell asleep.

 

Kenma didn’t stay long in the morning. He felt like he was interrupting. It took him back to the moments when he stayed over at a friend’s house and had breakfast with the entire family. At first it was just him and Kuroo, talking about university. Not soon later Kenma got to meet Oikawa and Daichi, and it didn’t take long for Bokuto and Akaashi to join them when they heard people outside. The conversation topics soon changed to people and events that Kenma didn’t know, so he felt like the stranger that just sat with them and listened to them talk.

Kenma had also worked out that Kuroo’s incredibly messy hairstyle was not so much of a hairstyle but rather a case of terrible bed hair. He always slept with his head wedged between his pillow, any attempts at combing his hair only ended in a frizzy hairstyle that looked like he got in an accident with a lawnmower, according to him.

He and Kuroo agreed to working quickly and efficient during the week because Kuroo’s exam was around noon on Friday so he would be taking the entire Friday off. It didn’t make sense to come in for one or two hours, so Kenma had to work alone that day. He didn’t mind that, but he was worried that their grade might suffer because they had to try and get as much done during the other four days. An A was obviously the ideal grade he was hoping for, he could deal with a B but anything beneath that would get his scholarship in serious trouble. There was a stressful week ahead for both of them.

Kenma was counting the days until the lab was over and he could go back to his daily routine.

 

They were working more frantically than usual and it definitely showed.

“Kuroo, have you put the salt we extracted in yet? It needs to be incubated at 70°C for at least two hours.”  Kenma said while carefully heating a solution.

Kuroo was standing next to him, reading the instructions for the next steps. “Yes, I told you to watch the time. I don’t remember the exact moment I put it in.”

“You never said that. I’m already preparing the next salt, it wasn’t _my_ task to look after the other one.” Kenma shook his head in annoyance. “It’s in there so that all the liquid vaporizes so a few minutes more or less should not make a big difference.”

“Alright, we’re good. You’re so tense, you’ll give yourself a headache with that frown on your face.” Kuroo grinned. At this point Kenma was convinced that his smirk was actually his resting face.

Kenma swivelled around in his chair. Everyone was absorbed with their work. Someone was hectically gesticulating while explaining something to their lab partner. He noticed someone in the far corner with their head rested on the bench, clearly sleeping. Sometimes you had to incubate your sample, or put it in the centrifuge for a long time and all you could do is waiting. Or catching up on some sleep. He enjoyed watching everyone else work. It made him feel like they were all in this together and he wasn’t the only one that had to deal with all the hardships that laboratories brought with them.

They moved on the next task, which made them ahead of schedule for the first time. Kuroo was just explaining how they did something in one of the previous experiments to another student while Kenma started with the setup.

“Kuroo, I’ll need some help here.” Kenma held a long burette in place and needed another person to close the clamps around it.

“Yes yes, in a second.”

“Now. I can’t hold this for much longer.”

Kuroo clicked his tongue. “There, done.” He quickly closed the clamps and screwed them close half-heartedly so he could go back to his conversation.

“I think they’re still too loose, you need to screw them tighter.” Kenma could still push the burette up or pull it down but it shouldn’t budge at all.

“It’s tight enough.”

“But...”

“Let go! It’s going to stay in place.” Kuroo insisted with confidence.

Kenma was not so sure about that but he shrugged and loosened his grip on the burette.

 It slipped out of the clasps and shattered in pieces.

“So much for that”, Kenma commented in a deadpan voice, giving Kuroo a reproachful look.

Before Kuroo could say anything Bokuto came over to them. “I heard glass breaking. What did you drop?”

When he saw the burette, or rather what remained of it, he didn’t look too optimistic. “Oh. That’s going to be a bit more difficult to replace. This is the first one you broke, right?”

Kenma and Kuroo both nodded. You had, depending on the lab, a certain number of things you were allowed to break. If you exceeded that number you had to pay for all the additional items you destroyed.

“If you follow the corridor in the right direction then the storage room is the second door from the end. Normally I’d go with you but Kuroo, you already know where you can find it. Make sure to take the right one back with you. The adults, that’s me, are all needed at the bench over there so don’t cause any trouble”, he laughed and walked away.

 

“How come you already know where we need to go?” Kenma asked while they walked down the corridor. He couldn’t remember ever being allowed to go and look for supplies himself.

“Sometimes I hang out here and help Bokuto or Tsukki, so I know exactly where we have to look for a replacement.”

Kenma gave him a critical look. “Is Bokuto that much older?”

“We’re two months apart and went to high school together. “ He pushed the door to the supplies open. “Here we are. I don’t know where exactly the burettes are stored, we’ll have to search for it.”

Kenma was glad that they had found the storage room. It prevented him from asking the question that was on the tip of his tongue. If he was the same age as Bokuto then why was he here, taking this laboratory, only two semesters ahead of Kenma? He should be a lab assistant as well, writing his final work to get a master’s degree.

“Aren’t all the drawers labelled?” Kenma asked instead. It was not the right time to speculate about Kuroo’s situation.

The storage room looked like it had been used as a laboratory in earlier days. It had a bench on both sides, along with a sink and an outlet that had been converted in storage for centrifuges. Bright sunshine came through the large window, showing no signs of the thunderstorm that had raged on the weekend.

“All of this has been resorted at least twice since then and nobody ever bothered with labelling it right again.” Kuroo opened a drawer with ‘test tubes’ written on it and it was filled with pipette tips to show his point.

They went through the bottom drawers but without any results. The larger objects were usually kept in the top drawers so they had not expected to find what they needed but it was always better to check first.

“Found them”, Kenma said after he had opened the second top drawer.

“Good, if you move aside one step then I can get it down”, Kuroo offered.

Kenma looked at him with wide eyes. “Are you implying that I’m too short to reach up there?” He wasn’t particularly short, but compared to Lev and Yamaguchi the height difference was clearly noticeable. Kuroo was tall as well, why was everyone blessed with good genes? At least Hinata was in the short-people-club too, even Kenma looked tall next to him.

“No, please go ahead”, Kuroo said with a smirk. He leaned back against the bench, watching Kenma’s struggle.

He could reach the burette with his fingertips and he could probably get it down, but without a good hold of it he might let it fall again. Kenma didn’t want to ruin yet another burette, so he tried to push himself off the bench to get a bit higher. He only needed a few more centimetres but it wasn’t enough.

“Need any help?” Kuroo asked, amused by his futile attempts.

“No, I don’t”, Kenma replied between clenched teeth. He tried stretching his hand out even farther but at this point he was only going to throw the burette down.

“Here, let’s try to not ruin another one.” Kuroo said right behind him. Kenma could feel him press against his back, leaning over him. He rested one hand as a support on Kenma’s shoulder while he took the burette out of his finger tips. Kenma tensed up and almost stopped breathing for a second. Kuroo’s scent washed over him, too familiar from the weekend. He could feel his cheeks heating up.

“Now you messed up my ponytail.” He tried to direct Kuroo’s attention away from his blushing face.

Kuroo cocked his head to one side, taking Kenma’s hair in. Since he had pushed against it a lot of strands had fallen out. “I see no difference to before.”

“I didn’t expect that from someone with _your_ hairstyle, it looks like we’re matching”, Kenma retorted.

“Ouch, I’m hurt. “ Kuroo said. Then he ruffled Kenma’s hair and turned it in a complete mess. “ _Now_ we match, wouldn’t you say so?”

 

They were guilty of neglecting their post-lab protocol this week. On Thursday they decided to revise everything for the next day, so they headed once more to Kenma’s place.

“I’m not entirely sure how you managed to get away with this, you’re lucky”, Kenma said while they took their shoes off and hung their jackets up.

“I obviously convinced the professor with my endless charm.”

Kuroo was allowed to write the weekly test they had at the laboratory each Friday on the upcoming Monday, but only because Bokuto had promised the professor in charge that he’d write a completely new exam sheet just for Kuroo. He would never tell him the questions, of course. There was a difference between giving advice and blatantly cheating, and neither Kuroo nor Bokuto were up for that.

“So I’d say we start going through everything from the start and revise before we work on the things that are still a bit unclear”, Kenma suggested.

“You really don’t have to do this”, Kuroo said.

“But I want to. And also, I just happen to _love_ physical chemistry.”

“I can’t believe you said that sentence with a straight face.”

 

The sun had already set long ago but they were still going for it. Kenma was resting his face on his notebook while he absentmindedly watched Kuroo trying to work his way through a particularly tough problem. He had already worked it out but Kuroo insisted on coming up with a solution himself.

“We did a similar one just now, why is this not working?” He scratched something and started over again.

Kenma only responded with a soft humming noise and continued to watch Kuroo’s pen glide over the paper, mesmerized by its movement. They had been revising, then started with a few problems and now they were only working on the last chapter that was still unclear.

Kuroo cursed and banged his head against the table.

“Break time?” Kenma mumbled. “We could order pizza?”

“It’s past midnight, are there any pizza services that deliver at this time?”

“I know one, it’s not too expensive and delivers until 3am.” Kenma handed him his phone.

Kuroo gave him a puzzled look. “What am I supposed to do with this? And why is that picture of me still your save screen?? Change it.”

“Nope.” Kenma grinned. Late at night he was always dangerously close between laughing at everything or having an existential crisis, usually there was no in between. “And you have to call, I saved them under the name ‘pizza’.”

“Just pizza?” Kuroo didn’t question why Kenma wanted him to call and he was thankful for that. He couldn’t tell him that he was too anxious to order pizza. That just the mere thought of having to speak to a stranger and order food made him shake and break out into a cold sweat.

Half an hour later they were sitting on Kenma’s couch, eating pizza.

“This is so good. I feel like this pizza is what keeps me going at this point”, Kuroo said.

Kenma’s mouth twitched. “Is it really that good?”

Kuroo nodded and took another slice.

“Do you think this helps?” Kenma asked after a while.

“Pizza? Pizza always helps, it’s food and your brain needs food if you want to study.”

Kenma sat up straighter, resting one arm on the back of the couch. “No, this. Studying and revising. I can’t look at anything exam related the night before, it always makes me nervous and insecure.”

“It’s the opposite for me”, Kuroo said. “I need prove that I’m prepared. It makes me feel at ease when I know that I’ve done well on the exercises, it gives me a sense of security.”

“And if you don’t have that?”

“I don’t take the exam. I can’t waste attempts on a whim.”

“But you can’t do that tomorrow.”

Kuroo laughed, but it sounded defeated. “You’re right. Tomorrow I’ll have to pull this off, whether I want to or not.”

“You will.”

“At least someone is confident. I do need to thank you for putting that much effort into helping me and for putting your scholarship second.”

Kenma shook his head. “I’ll work that one out somehow, we can still get good grades and most of it depends on the report.”

Kenma wasn’t sure if he should be asking too many questions but he felt like the right time for that would be now. “I’ve been thinking”, he started. “Is there a reason why Bokuto is already a laboratory assistant? Has he skipped a few semester?”

“That is the most sensitive way I’ve ever heard asking someone why it’s taking me so long”, Kuroo replied. Kenma thought that he meant it but he wasn’t sure. “Of course you would be curious. I don’t blame you.”

Kenma observed him, waiting for more.

“My mum is a single parent and I have a little sister at home, I wouldn’t want to burden them with all my additional expenses. I had to work to earn some money before I could go to university. I have to pay for all of this by myself, so I depend on the grant the university is giving me. I worked a lot during uni, so I couldn’t always focus on exams.” He looked at Kenma, his eyes honest and powerful. “I will pull this through, it might take me longer than others but everyone has their own circumstances.”

Kenma nodded. “I’m sure you will, you made it this far.”

“Truth to be told, I was a bit jealous of your scholarship at first”, Kuroo said. “It would be nice not having to worry about money that much but with the scholarship you have to worry about your grades which your money depends on. It’s all the same in the end.” He paused for a moment. “Enough with this serious talk! One more cup of coffee and then you’ll ask me the topics I had difficulty with one more time.”

Kenma had given in to the temptation of coffee, or rather the effects of caffeine. He didn’t like it. It made him feel restless and exhausted at the same time. He got up from the couch and dragged himself back to his desk.

After a painful hour of revising they finally called it a day.

“Kenma, are you asleep?”

“Yes.”

“Get up, you need to go to bed.”

He raised his head from the desk and got up but not without making a displeased noise.

“I don’t have any shirt that fits you, sorry about that”, he said while he shuffled over to the bed.

Kuroo shrugged. “No big deal, I’ll just sleep in this. Thanks for letting me stay over.”

“‘S fine”, Kenma murmured. He stripped off his socks and sweater and flopped down on the bed. For a minute he was laying there, enjoying the soft feeling of his blanket. “Kuroo?”

“I’m still here, I only need some kind of blanket then I’m good.”

“You want to sleep on the couch? You’ve seen the couch, it’s way too small.”

“I don’t care.”

Kenma rolled his eyes, too tired to argue. “Just get in the bed already, I want to sleep.”

He couldn’t see Kuroo’s face because his face was still buried in the blanket but he could feel him hesitate. Kenma sighed and scooted over to make it more obvious that Kuroo should get in. The caffeine was wearing off and the exhaustion made Kenma care little about anything else but sleep.

Kenma felt the mattress move as Kuroo lay down next to him.

“I’m switching the light off.” Kenma said, not waiting for Kuroo to get under the blanket.

“Thanks. Again. You’re the best!”

“It’s ok. You took me with you to the lake. When we threw the sodium in.” 

“Heh, that was fun. We should do that again only with potassium.”

“No, we definitely shouldn’t...” Kenma’s voice trailed off.

He could feel Kuroo get under the blanket. For a moment it was quiet and all you could hear was their breath. Kenma felt a hand gliding through his hair.

“What...”

“I only wanted to push a few strands aside because they were hanging in my face”, Kuroo said.

Kenma looked over his shoulder at Kuroo. The moment their eyes met Kuroo pulled him closer. “Kenma”, he whispered. He leaned his forhead against Kenma’s, touching it gently. Then he kissed a line from temple to cheekbone, his hand still playing with Kenma’s hair.

He leaned into the touch and their lips fell together. Kenma wanted to look at him, take in his expression and the messy hair in exactly that moment. But he could barely keep his eyes open so all he did was lean into Kuroo. He was so tired. _Kuroo. Kuroo, Kuroo._

Kenma nuzzled his head against his neck. Kuroo’s skin was warm and soft. His hand in Kenma’s hair, the other one around his back, holding him close. Kenma hummed with content, not processing what was happening, just taking in the moment.

“Kenma...”, Kuroo whispered again. His voice was drowsy. He gave him a kiss on his forehead, so softly that Kenma wasn’t sure if it really happened or he had imagined it. It was the last thing Kenma noted before he fell asleep.

 

Kenma almost jumped when his alarm rang in the morning. He looked around, disorientated. He got out of bed to switch the alarm off. Three hours of sleep were as good as none.

His eyes were almost shut tight, he could barely see where he was going when he shuffled to the bathroom. He washed his face with ice cold water, but to no avail. After he got dressed he walked over to the fridge to get some food when he noticed something that got his heart racing. He was alone. Kuroo was already gone.

Last night and the consequences washed over him colder than the air that come out of the fridge. Kuroo had kissed him! Did that mean he liked Kenma? Probably, right? He was most likely already gone because he needed to get home to get changed before the exam. Kenma didn’t even hear him leave.

His mind was working furiously. Only when Kenma noticed that he sat over his bowl of cereal for twenty minutes did he get going. He was running late.

He made it just in time. Bokuto had already started handing out the exam papers. Kenma quickly sat down at his place, still buttoning his lab coat up with shaky hands.

“That was a close call, you’re lucky that the others haven’t started yet.” Bokuto gave him a chiding look. He leaned closer and added, “ Do you think Kuroo did well yesterday?”

Kenma nodded while he tried his best not to blush at the mention of Kuroo’s name. “He’s going to do fine today, I believe. I apologize for being late and making everyone wait.”

The test went okay. Kenma didn’t have too much time to prepare for it, but given the fact that they had been working on the topic they were questioned about the entire week he could answer most of it.

After he had handed the paper in Bokuto came over to him one more time.

“Kuroo’s working at the club again today. I’ll pay him a visit and I thought maybe you wanted to come too. You must be just as curious as me about how he did today”, he suggested. “I’ll be around there at about 10pm.”

Kenma had initially planned to send Kuroo a text and ask how he did but he was grateful that Bokuto asked him. There were some things that he needed to discuss with Kuroo and he’d rather do that in person.

The day passed by quickly, which Kenma was not surprised by. He was a lot busier than usual, without Kuroo helping him out. He might have thought that he worked more efficiently when he was alone but he couldn’t deny that it was a lot more hectic if you had to take care of everything on your own. It took him some time to realize that Bokuto was always coincidently close to his bench whenever he needed help. He acted like he always simply happened to be nearby every time but Kenma knew that he kept an eye on him. Kenma didn’t say it out loud but he was thankful for that.

 

When Kenma got ready he wasn’t too sure about his decision anymore. He could feel his heart hammering in his chest and he couldn’t shake this unsettling feeling off. He had no idea what he was supposed to say to Kuroo. Kenma liked Kuroo. A lot. He had gradually warmed up to him, without realizing it.

He was still confused about what had happened. They were bound to spend a lot of time together due to the lab, but he had never expected Kuroo to accept him so wholeheartedly. People like Kuroo usually didn’t fall for someone like Kenma. He felt like his presence was too weak next to Kuroo, always worried, always anxious. Kuroo made everything look so easy.

He could just talk to people, drawing them in with his lazy smile and his messy hair. _Kuroo’s hair._ Kenma regretted not running his hands through it.

When he arrived at the _“Gatto Nero”_ he fumbled for his ID. He had been here a few times right when he had started with university. Lev always insisted on going out which usually ended up with them having one drink and then heading home again because they were bored. The club was one of the few ones Kenma deemed as okay. It was more of a bar with loud music than a club. What Kenma disliked about it was that it was, just like many other clubs, underground. Therefore it was small, packed with people and the longer the evening went on the thicker the smoke in the air got.

He walked the stairs down, towards the noise of the crowd. Nothing had changed since he had last been here.

Kenma already spotted Kuroo and Bokuto at the counter at the end of the club. He sighed when he realized that he had to squeeze through the entire crowd to get to them.

He almost made it, only a group of people that decided to conveniently stand in the middle of the place, making it impossible to get past them, separated him from Bokuto and Kuroo. Kenma was about to ask one of them to move aside when he picked up their conversation. Bokuto’s voice was so loud, it carried easily.

“You did what?!”

“Keep it down”, Kuroo urged. “We kissed. I kissed Kenma, to be precise. I still can’t believe it.”

“And what are you gonna do now?”

“I have no clue, to be honest. That was not according to plan.”

“This is probably the right time to mention that I told Kenma to come here too. I thought it might be nice, talking about your exam and stuff.”

“Fantastic. Thanks”, Kuroo said, voice dripping with sarcasm. With a more exasperated voice he added, “I just wish I could travel back in time and undo that.”

Kenma felt the blood drain from his face.

He turned around, pushing through the crowd and straight out of the club. He walked home as quickly as his legs allowed without starting to run.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you didn't mind the chemistry talk too much, I tried to keep it simple..
> 
> As always, I can't thank you all enough for your comments, you are too kind!! :3


	4. Best friends with my doubt

_"Kinetic energy: The energyan object possesses by virtue of its motion."_

 

 

The icy wind made Kenma’s ears and nose turn red but, he didn’t care. He strode home, eyes fixed on the ground and hands shoved in his pockets.

He didn’t want to go back to his cold empty apartment and wallow in self pity.

Instead he knocked at Lev’s door. He needed to be around someone who wasn’t Kuroo.

“Kenma!” Lev said when he opened the door. “I didn’t expect you to come over, but please come in!” He shouted that last part unnecessarily loud, but Kenma didn’t pay too much attention to it and entered. Their apartments have had the exact same layout,  but Kenma has always been baffled by the different ways they had furnished it.

Yaku sat in the living room, wearing a shirt that was at least three sizes bigger for him and oddly dishevelled hair. “Hi Kenma!”

“Hey”, Kenma said slowly. He glanced back to Lev and caught him giving Yaku an apologetic look. “God, just don’t open the door if I’m interrupting something. I don’t even want to know. I can always talk to you some other time.”

“Sure? But you look like you’ve been out so I wondered if something happened?”

“Nothing that I wanted to talk about in particular. I’ll get going, so have a nice evening...or something like that.”

He left the two of them alone, shaking his head while he walked out.

His apartment was full of memories of last night. The pizza boxes were still stacked on his table, the study material spread out on his desk and the Wii controllers laying around on his nightstand.

Kenma wanted it all gone but cleaning everything up would seem so final to him. Destroying the illusion that Kuroo  maybe kissed him because he actually liked him, not because it was late at night and he was just craving for affection.

Kenma was sitting in front of his TV, trying to decide what video game to play but none of them appealed to him. He played for five minutes, switched the game out, tried a new one and repeated that same process. They didn’t distract him like they usually did. Kenma’s thoughts kept coming back to Kuroo. He had assumed that Kuroo disappeared in the morning because he didn’t want to be late for his exam. The exam  was around lunch time so there was no reason to be in a hurry but it had been the only explanation to Kenma at that point. Now it was obvious to him that Kuroo didn’t want to see him and left in a haste.

What made him so disappointed wasn’t the fact that Kuroo didn’t like him. He could live with rejection, but the way he had talked to Bokuto about him. _“I just wish I could travel back in time and undo that.”_ Kuroo made it sound like it was one of the biggest mistakes in his life. Kissing Kenma had been so utterly terrible that he wanted to stop it from ever happening.

He would lie if he said that he wasn’t hurt. Having people talk behind his back was something that he was used to. Kenma still remembered the patronizing looks and the way they made fun of him in high school, even when he was still within earshot. He had had friends, and he was never physically bullied, but people were talking and they didn’t say nice things. All high school managed to do, was rob him of every last bit of self-confidence that he ever managed to scrape together.

Hearing someone talk badly about him behind his back was a form of betrayal that couldn’t easily be forgiven.

Kenma lay down on the bed. He wanted to call Shouyou. He was on a trip with the sports faculty, they were playing against some other team so they will stay there for the weekend. Kenma initially didn’t want to be a bother,  but it was already night so they were finished with their training, for sure.

Shouyou picked up after the second ring. “Kenma!! How are you?”

“Hey. I’m okay.”  Kenma took a deep breath. “How is your training going? Are your opponents strong?”

“Heh, they might be strong but we will beat them for sure. Right, Kageyama?”

Kenma could hear a distant “I’m trying to sleep, dumbass!”

“Just ignore Kageyama. He’s sulking because the coach told him that he couldn’t bring milk cartons with him because there was no fridge in the hotel, but we have one after all. Do you want to talk about what’s bothering you?”

“No, maybe later.”

“Okay, just say when. So today we had this _huge_ barbecue, there was so much food, it was amazing!” Kenma curled up on his bed and covered himself with his blanket while he listened to Shouyou talking. He always asked if Kenma needed someone to talk to,  but he never pushed him into telling something he didn’t want to. He knew that Kenma wanted some distraction instead and that he’d confide in him when he felt ready.

Shouyou went on and on about how great their location was, and how much fun they had at the barbecue. Kenma sighed with relief. Shouyou was that one constant in his life that never changed and kept him calm when things started to get overwhelming. Kuroo might have left in the morning before Kenma woke up but he could tell immediately that he must have hogged the pillow from him, his scent was all over it.

“Should I keep talking?” Shouyou asked after half an hour. He got no response.

“Kenma?”

He waited, but still no response. Shouyou set his phone on the highest volume until he could hear a faint rhythmical breathing sound.

“Kenma, are you asleep?”

“Mhh..”

“Kenma?”

“Huh?”

“I’ll let you sleep but do you want to talk about what’s bothering you? I could make some time tomorrow.”

“I’ll manage, you just enjoy your weekend. Good luck for tomorrow.”

“Thanks and good night, sleep well.”

“Thanks, Shouyou. Good night.”

Along with all that additional stress,  Kenma had only slept a few hours last night and worked alone the entire day. The exhaustion had finally taken its toll on him. He didn’t even bother getting changed, all he wanted to do was get some rest.

That weekend Kenma focused on the lab report, working on the work that had piled up over the course of the last week. He tried to keep himself busy and avoided thinking of Kuroo.

 

On Monday Kenma went to the lab earlier than usual. He wanted to be by the lockers before Kuroo arrived so they wouldn’t have to talk. Avoiding Kuroo was unfortunately not possible, but he didn’t have to see him ever again after five days. _Only five days._

Kenma was checking if all the solutions and test tubes that they needed for this days’ experiments were at their right place when Kuroo arrived. As soon as he saw Kenma, he got a determined look on his face. Before he could make his way to their bench he was held up by Bokuto. He had to take the weekly colloquium that he skipped on Friday.

Bokuto handed him a piece of paper and he sat down at the corner of their bench while Kenma was still occupied with preparations.

Suddenly he heard an urging whisper. “Kenma!”

He glanced at Kuroo. He frantically pointed to one of the questions on his answer sheet. Kenma looked in their manual and acted like he needed something next to Kuroo. He leaned over and looked at the question.

“Do you know the answer?” Kuroo whispered again.

Kenma nodded once.

“So? Tell me, quick!”

Kenma hesitated for a moment. Then he regarded Kuroo with narrowed eyes and walked past him to pick up their sample from the lab assistant.

 

“Hey! I did great on my exam on Friday, I feel like an expert in physical chemistry now”, Kuroo greeted him after his test. “By the way your anti-cheating policy is mean . I’m hurt.”

“It’s good to hear that you did well on Friday”, Kenma said. He tried to keep his voice neutral. “I was too busy trying to work on everything we didn’t get done during the week. Now can we finally start, we’re already behind because you took so long.”

“Kenma, I’m sorry”, Kuroo’s voice had lost the playful tone. It came out tight, guilty. “Do you want to work on the report after the lab is done? We could talk then.”  

“I can’t, I have other plans for today.” Kenma purposely said it that way, so Kuroo knew that he was coming up with an excuse. He wanted Kuroo to know that he would rather do their work alone instead of spending time with him. Because he already knew what Kuroo would say.

_“I never wanted to kiss you.”_

_“It was late and I felt lonely.”_

_“You’re a great friend so can we forget about this and act like it never happened?”_

The thought alone made Kenma’s  stomach turn. He wasn’t ready to hear those words coming out of Kuroo’s mouth.

Kenma felt like he became a Kuroo radar over the course of the next few days. When he spotted anyone who resembled Kuroo, he froze in place. He almost dropped his groceries at the supermarket when he saw a guy with a remotely similar hairstyle.

But on Wednesday something happened that Kenma hadn’t included in _Operation Avoid Kuroo_. He was heating up a solution over the Bunsen burner when the gas went out. Kenma opened his mouth to tell Kuroo that he should turn the gas back on because he was still using it when he noticed that the gas went out on every bench. For a moment everyone was looking around, confused. Someone had pressed the emergency button to turn the gas off. Then the fire alarm went off.

“Everyone, put your solutions down! Close all jars, put them in the outlets and close those too. Then follow me to the inner courtyard, this is not a practice alarm!” Bokuto shouted while he held the door open for everyone to leave.

They all tried to seal everything as fast as possible to prevent toxic fumes from developing and walked straight out of the building. The fire alarm was fun back in school when a bit of smoke would trigger it and the chemistry class was abruptly over but in advanced laboratories it was not a joking matter.

“Bo, what’s going on?” Kuroo asked on his way out.

“Someone accidently left a gas bottle next to one of the ovens where they dry different salts. These bottles have a pressure of 200 bars, exposing it to heat over a long duration can cause it to blow up at any second so we had to evacuate this entire wing of the building.” Bokuto answered while he counted how many students left the lab.

They gathered together in the courtyard, waiting for further instructions. The sky was clouded and it started drizzling while Bokuto explained to them that the fire brigade was on their way to handle the problem and that nobody was allowed inside.

“This is going to take at least two hours, so I would suggest you wait in the library or some other close by university building. You are absolutely forbidden from entering the building, I know that all your bags are in the lockers, but it’s not safe. Come back in two hours and the problem should be taken care of”, he instructed. Then Bokuto rushed over to Akaashi and cupped his face. “Are you hurt? Is everything okay?”

“Bokuto, all I did was walk out of a building.”

“Still, I’m just making sure. I’ll have to stay here with the professors and other lab assistants, you go and look for some warm place.”

“I want to stay. Can’t I?”

Kenma watched them, trying his best not to sigh. If Akaashi wanted to stay here it would be just Kuroo and him. For two hours.

“Library?” Kenma asked. He crossed his arms in an attempt to keep himself warm, he disliked being cold.

“Sure. Do you want my coat?” Kuroo offered as they headed towards the building.

Kenma gave him an incredulous stare for that suggestion. “No?”

They walked in silence, Kenma refusing to start a conversation. It was around lunch time, most people were either at lectures or gathered at the food booth in front of the main building, so the library was almost empty.

They sat down at a table, still not speaking. Kenma eventually started playing a game on his phone, it was all he had with him. He had to admit, he was worried about the PSP in his bag, but he would never walk back into the building to get it.

Kuroo took his lab coat off. “I’ll see if I can find something to drink”, he said.

Kenma watched him until he disappeared behind a bookshelf.  He put his hands down and rested his head on them. _Only three days._

He was thankful to get a break of Kuroo to regain some energy, even if it was a short one. Kenma knew that he should stop feeling sorry for himself but he couldn’t help it.

He heard Kuroo return without even lifting his head. _God, he even remembered the way his walk sounded._

“I only had enough money in my pockets for one cup”, Kuroo said. Kenma opened one eye and squinted at him.

Kuroo had placed a cup of tea right in front of him. Kenma wanted to punch a wall. Why was he being so overly friendly all the time? Even so, he wrapped his hands around the cup without protesting.

“Is it just me or does Wednesday always last forever?” Kuroo said with a sigh.

“There are over seven billion people on this planet but I’m sure it’s just you. Nobody else feels that way”, Kenma replied dryly. He hated himself for being a sarcastic asshole when Kuroo had been so nice just a second ago, but the words just came out of his mouth.

“You’re mad at me, I get it”, Kuroo said. He paused for a moment. “So, do you maybe want to discuss...what happened?”

Kenma kept his gaze fixed on the cup. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to answer.

“I’m sorry for that. I didn’t want to make you uncomfortable or create this weird mood. “

Kenma could feel him looking at his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking. He swallowed hard. “Okay.”

Kuroo laughed nervously. “It wasn’t my intention, I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings. Can we forget about this?”

Kenma almost spilled the tea over his hands because he was squeezing the cup so hard. “I thought nothing of it, why should _my_ feelings be hurt? _You_ kissed me all of a sudden”, he said.

“I’m sorry”, Kuroo repeated. He stopped smiling. “But like I already said, can we go back to how it was before? Working in this atmosphere is exhausting and straining, don’t you think so?”

“Really? I think it’s just the right atmosphere.”

Kenma got up and walked out of the library, leaving the cup behind. On the way out, he could feel his eyes water. He had barely managed to control his voice when he said that last sentence, but he wasn’t sure if Kuroo noticed.

So he didn’t care at all. Kenma had even given him the chance to say the opposite, but he didn’t. He was right with what he heard Kuroo say at the club.

He walked around the building until he found an alcove on the top floor. Kenma knew that Kuroo wouldn’t come and look for him, but he made sure to choose a place where barely anyone walked by. His phone was the only distraction he had, but when his vision turned hazy and the first tear hit the screen he put it away again.

Wasn’t he pathetic? Running away, sitting in some hidden place and crying.

 

When he came back to the laboratory Kuroo was already there, whispering to Bokuto in a hushed voice. Kenma didn’t need to be able to read minds, he could tell that they were talking about him. Kuroo was pulling at a strand of his hair while he was speaking. He always unconsciously messed with his hair, Kenma had noticed.

He tore his gaze away from them before he was caught staring and picked their work up where they left off.

 

 _One more day._ Kenma had politely refused Kuroo’s offer to study together for the final exam, but on Friday he caught himself constantly glancing over to Kuroo to see how he was doing. His exam sheet was filled out and Kenma couldn’t help but feel a bit relieved. He did feel guilty for walking away when Kuroo asked for his help, even though it had been his own choice.

There weren’t any experiments scheduled for Friday, all that was left was cleaning up their lab space and replacing the materials that they used up. They turned their last results in and were allowed to go home afterwards.

Kenma had a lump in his throat while he cleaned his locker. Every single person that he had gotten to know over the course of the last month, had been a friend of Kuroo’s. Of course Bokuto and Akaashi knew that he wasn’t exactly on speaking terms with Kuroo, but he didn’t know how much he had actually told them. Even so, they were his friends above all and he felt the distance that had appeared between them since then. He started this lab with the intention of getting it over quickly and focusing on his scholarship, but this last week had been lonely.

Kenma unbuttoned his lab coat and unceremoniously stuffed it in his bag. He checked his locker to see if he had forgotten anything, but it was empty. All that was left to do was return the key to the lab assistant and he was ready to go. He took one last glance at Kuroo. He was still packing his bag. Kuroo hadn’t made a single attempt to talk to him today and he tried to be okay with that. He had no right to be upset. With that final conclusion he grabbed his bag and left.

He handed Bokuto his key and exchanged a quick goodbye, still not feeling like there was more he could say. The only thing he was looking forward to, was Shouyou coming over on Saturday to celebrate that they had won their match and that Kenma finally had more time to hang out again.

 

They had one week to finish the post lab report, it was due on Friday 12 pm. Kenma had tried to keep ahead with the report during the last weeks but of course most of the work was left until the end. Therefore it was no wonder that he found himself buried in notes and loose slips of paper, trying to make any senseof them. He had to admit, he was partly at fault. After the lab was done he needed a break. A break from Kuroo, a break from chemistry, a break from everything.

He had calmed down and now he was trying his best to polish his lab report and make it as complete as possible. It was getting late, when a phone call nearly made him jump off his chair.

_Incoming call from ‘Kuroo Lab’_

Kuroo hadn’t tried to contact him this entire week. Kenma’s hands were shaking when he picked up the phone.

“Yes?”

“It’s me, Kuroo.”

_God, was it one week or one month since he had last heard Kuroo’s voice?_

“I know. It shows on the display.”

“I have to ask a favour of you. And I know that I’m in no position to demand anything from you, I’m simply asking you to please help me with the lab report.”

Being mad at Kuroo was exhausting. He could imagine him on the other side of the line, messy hair as always, with his trademark lazy grin.

“Fine, I’ll help you. Tell me which experiments you don’t have completed yet.”

He agreed because he didn’t want to accept the fact that after this report was turned in their only connection  will be gone **.** It was something he wished he wanted, but he couldn’t bring himself to look forward to it.

Kenma talked him through the experiments, adding the parts that were missing.

“I hope I’m not keeping you from working on your own report”, Kuroo said eventually.

“I’m almost done with mine, it’s no problem.”

Kuroo started a sentence, then stopped. Then started again. “I- I passed my exam.”

“Oh. Congratulations, I suppose”, Kenma said. “When did you get the result?”

“I just got it today, but can you believe that I actually did it?”

Kenma resisted the urge to smile. “Of course you passed, how could you fail with my help?”

“You managed to save my ass, as usual”, Kuroo said. “We are going to celebrate that I passed tomorrow, you _have_ to come! I owe you a drink or probably ten at least, considering how often you helped me out.”

This wasn’t a déjà vu, was it? No, Kuroo had invited him already to a party during their first week. He had the feeling that this time he wouldn’t be standing behind the bar though.

“No thanks, I’d rather not.” Kenma wasn’t sure if that had been a peace offering but he didn’t want to spend time with Kuroo.

“Are you sure you can’t make it? I wanted –hold on a second, Bokuto needs something.” Kuroo stopped and talked to his flatmate. Kenma couldn’t understand what he was saying because he covered the speaker with his hand, he only picked up some scraps of the conversation. “...what... _right now_...important...don’t think so...in a minute...” He couldn’t make any sense of them.

“Sorry for that, I need to help Bokuto with the food otherwise the kitchen is going to turn into a mess. I’ve got a bit of time left though, we’re not in a hurry”, he explained.

“Aren’t we done talking? We went through the entire lab report so...”

“So? Is it that unbearable to talk to me even for just a minute?” Kuroo sighed.

“Maybe it is, how would you know?”

“Look, are you going to never talk to me again? I said I’m sorry. It was a shitty thing to do but I can’t change it, as much as I wish I could.” Kuroo sounded more frustrated the longer he spoke. “I want to make it up to you but you won’t talk to me. I’m trying my best here and you ignore me. Just tell me what the _hell_ you want me to do?!”

“You could stop shouting at me, for once. I can’t think of anything else that I’d want from _you_.” Kenma’s hands were shaking. He had trouble controlling his voice. “That’s all, goodbye.”

“No, wait!! Kenma I’m sorry I didn’t mean to –“

He hung up. First Kuroo blamed him as if everything was his fault, and then he even raised his voice at him. Kenma took a deep breath and he could tell that his throat felt unnecessarily tight. He wouldn’t say he had trouble handling fights, but people shouting at him always left him with the sudden urge to cry. It made him feel attacked and vulnerable, he hated it. Kenma decided to go to bed, his mood was ruined and he felt horrible.

 

On Friday at 10 am exactly, Kenma walked over to the chemistry department, his report was printed and he had even thought of adding page numbers. He was looking forward to the weekend, he had promised Lev and Yamaguchi that he’d help them out with the lab and give them some inside information.

He entered the building, ready to leave this part of his university career behind him when he saw Kuroo. He was leaning against the wall next to the stack of lab reports that had already been turned in. Kenma froze.

Kuroo sprang to his feet as soon as he saw him.

Kenma stepped closer, wary. What did he still want from him?

“Hey.” Kuroo said. “I’m so sorry that I snapped at you yesterday. I don’t know what made me do that, after you helped me out so much.”

“Okay.” Kenma opened his bag and put his report on the stack. He was glad that he had something to do and didn’t have to look at Kuroo directly.

“Hey, I see what you’re doing. You’re brushing me off by giving me short answers.” Kuroo took a step closer.

“Smart observation. How about you take the hint?” Kenma was still not looking at Kuroo. He pretended to search for something in his backpack.

“I just need to talk to you.” Kuroo wasn’t smiling. “Do you have some time. Right now?”

“That depends. So you can shout at me again?”

Kuroo took a deep sigh. “I keep saying I’m sorry over and over again like a parrot, I feel like the words have lost their meaning so let’s try something different. I’m an idiot and I totally don’t deserve your attention and time, but will you let me treat you to a coffee? Or not-coffee in your case?”

Kenma finally looked at him. He wasn’t sure what he should make of the suggestion but he knew that it was over as soon as he’d as much as glance at Kuroo. He couldn’t win against the little nose scrunch he always did when he messed something up. “ _One_ cup of coffee and that’s it.”

“Good, then let’s go.” Kuroo’s voice was serious when he said that but Kenma didn’t miss the small fist pump he did.

 

Kenma didn’t want to take Kuroo to the café he always went to so instead he let Kuroo pick a place. He had never been to the place before, even though it was close to the campus. The walls were covered in records and vintage wallpapers, music from the 70s was gently playing in the background and the tables were widespread. It wouldn’t have been Kenma’s first choice but he liked the atmosphere nonetheless.

They chose the table farther away from the entrance to have a bit more privacy.

“So...” Kenma started when they sat down.

“So?”

“You wanted to talk?”

“Don’t rush, let’s order something at first.”

Kenma rolled his eyes but even so he had a look at the menu. “I’ll have an apple cinnamon milkshake”, he ordered when the waiter came over to their table.

Kuroo ordered a cup of coffee, but he couldn’t pass up the chance to comment on Kenma’s choice. “Isn’t this the wrong season for apple and cinnamon?”

“No, I don’t think so. Why?”

“Just making sure”, Kuroo said with raised hands.

Kenma didn’t know what to think anymore. Talking to Kuroo was so easy, as long as they didn’t try to have a serious conversation. He stared at his milkshake as if it contained the answers to every question in this universe.

“Did you finish your report yesterday?” Kuroo eventually asked.

Kenma nodded. “Yeah, I was almost done anyways.” He didn’t know where this was going.

“I was irritated yesterday”, Kuroo started. “It was already at night and my own report was missing a lot of parts, enough to make me fail the lab. I was so stressed out because you were my only chance and I wasn’t sure if you’d help me. I was so tense I just snapped. This is not me making an excuse, I just want to explain. ”

“I have a lot of trouble dealing with people that shout at me. It’s scary.” Kenma said it because it was the truth.

“Argh, I feel so bad for this. I’m sorry for making you feel unsafe around me, that’s the opposite of my intentions.” Kuroo said, frustrated, running a hand through his hair.

“I know. And so do you now, so don’t do that again.”

“Is this you accepting my apology?”

“I guess so, or something.”

Kuroo’s eyes lit up. “So you’re forgiving me and coming to my party today? It’s officially starting at 8 pm but we’re all going to be swamped with preparations so you can come any time you want.” He seemed to have forgotten that that wasn’t Kenma’s only reason to why he acted so distant.

“I don’t think so. I already made plans with Shouyou.” That was a lie.

“Then bring him along, the more the merrier.”

“We’ll think about it.” He wouldn’t.

Now Kuroo’s grin was back. “Please do, I’ll mix you the best drink you ever had. “

Right, he works at a bar. Or a club. Almost the same thing. “Are you sure about that?” Kenma asked. “If that’s the case then I might have to come over for one drink.” He still wouldn’t.

 

What he did do that evening was play video games with Lev. He came over, complaining that he couldn’t get past a boss and made Kenma help him. Since Kenma had nothing else to do except for thinking about Kuroo he agreed to help him out.

“How did you get past that boss on your first try? I was stuck for an hour”, Lev said while he watched Kenma play.

“Maybe it’s because you’re shitty at playing this game?” Kenma didn’t mean it but Lev always got all fired up if you tell him that he plays bad.

“No way, give me the controller I can do it too!”

Kenma gave him the controller, already prepared to watch him fail for the next thirty minutes until he has to play again. He was having fun and tried his best to ban the party from his mind. He wasn’t missing anything, college parties could be summed up with lots of alcohol, terrible dancing to loud music and there always, always came a point when someone suggests to play truth or dare.

“How’s your lab assistant?” Kenma asked after a while.

Lev thought about it for a moment. “He’s always in a good mood. And he’s very energetic, even on Mondays.”

“Could you do me a favour and not mention my name?”

“Sure. Why? Did you piss him off somehow?”

“No, just a string of unfortunate events.”

Kenma played with the sleeves of his hoodie when his phone rang. Who called at one am in the middle of the night?

_Incoming call from ‘Kuroo Lab’_

Oh, was he going to complain about him not showing up? He hadn’t promised anything, though.

“Kuroo? Do you know how late it is?”

“Kenma?” he shouted. “Kenma ’s that you?” The music in the background made it almost impossible to understand him.

“Yes, it’s me. _You_ called me just now.”

“Kenma!!  I’m soooorry. I totally mean it. Kenma? Are ya listenin?”

Kenma shook his head. “Wait a minute. Are you drunk?!”

“Nooooo! I only had a f-few drinks. Not many. Bokuto! Bokuto, tell him that I’m totally sober, you can conf- confin...confirm, right, that’s the word. You can _confirm_ that.”

There was some incoherent rambling in the background but Kenma couldn’t make out anything that made sense.

“Kuroo, you should probably go to bed.”

“Kenma? Kenmaareyastillthere?”

“Yes. Yes I’m here. What is it?” He didn’t want to listen to Kuroo’s drunken nonsense.

“I love you. I love you so, sooo much. Like really much.” He made a short pause. “I like you a lot and you’re not here, wassup with that? Ya know where my place is, come here and let’s party!”

“I think you had enough partying for today. Good night, Kuroo.”

“I’ll be waiting for ya, right here. I’m not gonna move until you come over.”

“Good night, take care of yourself.”

Kenma wasn’t going to argue with a drunken Kuroo, he was even more stubborn than usual. He sat still for a moment, letting the conversation sink in.

“Woah, what were you talking about? Your face is bright red”, Lev finally said.

“Nothing”, Kenma replied quickly. “Focus on the game, you’re about to lose.”

“Gah!”

Kenma wasn’t sure what he should think of that. Scenario one: They were playing truth or dare. Scenario two: Kuroo is the type of drunk person that goes around telling everyone how much they mean to them and how much they love them. Scenario three: He was, contrary to Kenma’s believe, being serious.

He had no answer, he didn’t know how to read Kuroo’s statement. “Lev, why is everything so complicated?”

“I have no idea but I’m with you on this. I for once would like to know who designed this unbeatable level.”

“Gimme the controller”, Kenma said. He could either muse about Kuroo without actually getting the answer or he could finish this game with Lev.

 

Kenma was still asleep when someone rang his doorbell nonstop. He got up and almost fell out of bed when his foot got caught in the blanket. 8 am.

“This better be important”, he murmured while he hurried to the door. He looked out of the peephole and there he was. Kuroo.

Kenma was still in his pyjamas, basically half asleep, but as soon as he opened the door he didn’t feel bad about how he looked anymore. Kuroo was wearing the same clothes he had on the day before, his dark circles probably visible from the other side of the planet. He had his hands in his pockets and looked like he hadn’t gotten a single hour of sleep last night.

“Hey. Can I come in?” he asked after an uncomfortable moment of silence.

Kenma swallowed hard. “Finally sobered up?  Let me get dressed.”

It was in this moment that he thanked his mom for buying that unnecessary bathrobe when he had moved in. He quickly threw it on to look less naked, his pyjamas usually consisted of an oversized shirt and some boxer shorts.

“Do you want anything to drink?” Kenma asked. His heart was beating fast.

“Coffee, the strongest one you have.”

Kenma pointed to his kitchen. “No coffee maker, remember?”

“Ugh, I forgot about that.” Kuroo rested his head on the table. “Then water or something. Or anything with caffeine in it.”

He made both of them a cup of black tea, it’s the best he could do. Then he sat down, giving Kuroo an expecting look.

“Look, about yesterday...” Kuroo stopped. He seemed to contemplate whether he should continue or not. “I called, as you might remember.”

“You did”, Kenma confirmed.

“Right. I didn’t really wanted to let you know my feelings like, that but I guess that’s how it goes. So here I am, at your apartment, telling you that I really like you. And you clearly don’t, I already got that message. I didn’t want to make things awkward during the lab, but I hoped that we could maybe still remain as friends.” The words started pouring out of him. Kenma had never seen Kuroo this insecure, his eyes on him and trying to read his reaction.

But Kenma was at a loss. Was he still asleep in his bed and this was a dream? “Wait a second, you said that you don’t care about me. At the library. You said – and I quote – _‘Can’t we forget about this?’_.”

“Of course I did, you wouldn’t even look at me the entire week! I thought that maybe if I said that I didn’t care as well, you wouldn’t mind that much. I thought that if I confessed you might react even worse.” He said that last sentence with a heavy voice.

“But I only said I didn’t care because you said so”, Kenma said with a shaky voice. “And at the bar, that Friday after your exam you said to Bokuto that you wanted to travel back in time and undo everything. As if k-kissing me was the worst thing you’ve ever done. I felt horrible.”

“Oh god, you heard that? But I didn’t mean it like that!”

Kenma didn’t know who to believe anymore. Past Kuroo that had clearly shown no interest in him or present Kuroo that apparently did. “And what did you mean then?”

“I had a plan. I wanted to ask you out on a date after the lab was over. I was scared that I didn’t consider your feelings and that I rushed everything. I didn’t even know if you liked me back. “Kuroo shrugged. “You acted so cold and distanced the week after that, I assumed that that was exactly what had happened.”

“Only because I thought it was just a kiss to _you_.”

Kenma could see the sudden realization in Kuroo’s eyes. “Wait, that means you don’t hate me?”

He shook his head. He didn’t say it out loud, but the words he left unsaid were obvious.

“Kenma, do you maybe want to go out with me?” Kuroo asked with a blush on his cheeks. “You don’t have to, of course. I don’t want to pressure you or anything.”

Kenma smiled. He didn’t even try to hide his own embarrassment when he replied. “Yes, I’d like to maybe go out with you. “

Kuroo grinned. “I have another suggestion to make. I’m not trying to get you in bed the second you agreed to be my boyfriend, but I didn't get any sleep last night...”

“Neither have I, let’s just sleep for one or two more hours.” He had already spent a night with Kuroo in the same bed, he didn’t mind.

 

“Your hair looks like a sunflower if you lie like this”, Kuroo murmured while he let his hand run through Kenma’s hair.

“Is that so?” Kenma hummed. He rested his head on Kuroo’s chest, listening to the steady rhythm of his breathing.

“Alright, I’ll shut up so we can finally sleep.” Kuroo laughed.

“Promise me one thing?”

“Yes?”

“This time you won’t disappear when I wake up.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this chapter isn't too fast paced and you enjoyed it. I'm a bit sad that this story is over, it has grown on me over the past months. But this isn't over yet, I plan on writing a tsukkiyama sequel so let's see how that works out.  
> Even so, I hope this story made you smile, thanks for sticking with it till the end and all your comments <3 
> 
> A huge thanks goes out to [ paola ](http://sweettoffepanda.tumblr.com//) who was my beta-reader for this chapter, thank you so much again!!!  
> You can also find me on [ tumblr ](http://s-ugawarakoushi.tumblr.com/)^^


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